Obsessive Titmouse

I’ve been visited by an obsessive tufted titmouse all weekend. At first it was cute to see the thing sitting on my window sill. It was bouncing up and down moving from window to window to twig. The Old Cat, who is one-eyed and doesn’t notice much of anything, was interested enough to watch it and twitch his tail.

It was overcast, and I was surprised the titmouse could see a reflection in the window (and I assumed that’s why it was so fascinated with the location). It didn’t peck at the glass but it would twitter, chitter and be at the same spot constantly.

At first it scolded the reflection. Next it just seemed profoundly interested in it. Then it started singing to its reflection. If you’ve ever though a titmouse has a kind of muted song, think again. From 4 feet away, with the window slightly open, titmice are loud! Even The Old Cat eventually got tired of it and went back to sleep.

Eventually, I thought the thing must have business elsewhere that was more important than spending 100% of its day looking at its reflection in the window, so I closed the curtain. This has not stopped the titmouse (or apparently the reflection). The titmouse was at the window all day on Saturday and first thing on Sunday, almost before it was light outside, it showed up again. The only thing that stopped it momentarily was a heavy rain shower on Sunday afternoon. I’m almost glad to be at work today.