# I have catbirds in my crape myrtle **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 3, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-catbirds-in-my-crape-myrtle/253309 "2004-07-03T01:19:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-catbirds-in-my-crape-myrtle/253309/1 "2004-07-03T01:19:44Z")
My small city garden brings me delight throughout the year. One of the reasons I bought this house was the yard – I’m on a lot and a half, so I have narrow side yard (10 feet or so?) that runs along the house and leads to a few steps that you go up and around to the back to find the main garden, a circle of lawn surrounded by flowerbeds. Ten years ago, when I won a substantial chunk of change on “Jeopardy!,” the main splurge was getting the side yard landscaped – a flagstone walk with beds on either side and a few large plants (a witch hazel, [a crape myrtle](http://keepbrazosbeautiful.org/images/crepe/crepe17.jpg), a hibsicus). Well, ten years is a reasonable amount of time, and the crape myrtle, especially, is getting pretty big – the effect from the upstairs bathroom is like being in a treehouse. It hangs over the walkway, and at this point the area beneath it is a shade garden, a fact I’m only starting to come to terms with. My garden started out as mostly sunny, when I moved in in 1990 – but the neighbors to my south put in an ornamental pear that throws most of the backyard into shade, and I did it to myself with the crape myrtle in the said yard. This spring I moved a climbing rose that the previous owners had planted, because it was right next to the tree, and I planted impatiens, not petunias, in the annual beds along the walk this year. Anyway, the crape myrtle, as you’ve gathered, is the main thing you see in the side yard – it’s not only big and hanging over the walkway, it’s covered with hot pink flowers in the summer. I love this tree. It’s right outside the window where my computer is, so when I stop tp think and stare out the window, that’s what I’m staring it. And I’d noticed this one bird, a little gray thing, kept flying up and landing on the branch right outside – and, yep, I went out and looked into the tangled branches of the tree and it looked like there was a nest up there. It was hard to get a look at the bird, though, and it was driving me nuts trying to figure out what it was, since there was no real distinguishing marks on it that I could see (or was it just bad lighting in the shade and my middle-aged eyes?). But I’ve been watching it for a couple of weeks. Well, this morning, I finally figured out what it was: [a catbird](http://www.naturesound.com/birds/hires/catbird.jpg). And tonight, while I was sitting on the john looking out the window, I noticed two or three cute little roly-poly gray birds frolicking around awkwardly in the top branches of the tree. Yup, baby catbirds, learning how to fly. Way, way, way too cool! ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-catbirds-in-my-crape-myrtle/253309/2 "2004-07-03T01:36:18Z")
Isn’t there some kind of ointment for that? He’s cute as the very dickens, **twicks**. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-catbirds-in-my-crape-myrtle/253309/3 "2004-07-03T02:07:32Z")
You have no idea how many “e’s” I had to go back and add after previewing. ---
**Author:** ![IrreverentTone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@IrreverentTone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IrreverentTone)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-catbirds-in-my-crape-myrtle/253309/4 "2004-07-03T02:24:27Z")
Are they sitting in the catbird seats? _giggles at the cute widdle birdies_ ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-catbirds-in-my-crape-myrtle/253309/5 "2004-07-03T02:27:03Z")
“Then stop eating catbirds.” –_Myrtle_