Like many 5th graders, I had to read To Kill a Mockingbird. I am pretty sure this was one of the only assigned reads I ever made it through prior to 10th grade (which is ironic because I read fiction voraciously).

I have to admit that I never really understood the mockingbird reference in the title of the book. That is until recently, when I recently realized how annoying mockingbirds are in real life. Each morning, we wake up to the incessant sound of our resident backyard mockingbird making every sound of every bird imaginable on volume 11 (ala This is Spinal Tap ) starting right before sunrise. It isn’t so bad during the winter when the sun comes up at 7:15 AM, but in the summer, which the sun is up before 6 am, I consistently wake the visions of shooting that bird with a shotgun, or less violently, grabbing and tying that stupid beak shut.

And on that note, how can hummingbirds make such loud noises with such a small body. They are running a distant second for obnoxious chirping early in the morning.

In next weeks episode of mockingbird, I will detail how another stupid mockingbird at my parents Santa Barbara house declared the front walkway off-limits to the actual tenants of the house.

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