The Unseen Made Visible

A bird popped into my life.?

A robin to be exact.?

I called him Jackson.

Like his namesake, Jackson Pollock, he liked making drippy paintings.?

Long white drips down the front doors of my deep dark blue car.

It was not a great look.

So I posted online at NextDoor.com, polling neighbors on the best way to deter the robin from using my car as his loo.

One poll got 11 votes (not exactly a huge sample). Nearly half (45%) who voted thought an owl would be a good deterrent. Twenty-seven percent thought making the mirror where the bird perches a less hospitable place. About 1 in 10 thought Irish Spring would do the trick.

Then neighbors offered solutions they’d tried or heard of. Someone had dangled aluminum pie plates from the car mirrors.?

This worried me, as it’s kind of windy here. I could imagine the pie plates leaving scratch marks on my doors.

Another person covered her mirrors with plastic bags. And that worked for her.

But the thing is, the bird wasn’t targeting my mirrors. He was standing on the mirrors and letting loose.

A friend down the street facetiously suggested I cut the tree where the nest is.

I thought that was a nuclear option.??Plus, I’m trying to add trees, not eliminate them. My yard is way too exposed. I wish it were more of a wooded lot.

My friend also said she could send her cat over to deal with the bird.

Her cat was welcome, I told her, to come for a juicy snack.

I must note that I have been adding trees, hoping for not only more shade but more birds.?

But not this bird!

One guy mentioned a brand of BB gun. But I would be reluctant to use one so close to my car. It might be worse than bird paintings.?

Plus, to tell the truth, I’m not a gun-toting sort of person. The only kind of gun I’ve used is a water pistol.

For more than a week, I put a life-size black plastic garden duck on top of the car to stand guard. I tied chains of plastic bags to my car’s side mirrors. I figured they would bounce around erratically, keeping the bird away. And they did whip around in the wind.

But the wind was so strong, it often blew the plastic bag chains into a neighbor’s yard or somewhere into mine. I gave up on the plastic bags.?

Instead, before setting out, I would spray the art, squeegee it away, and rinse with a bucket of water.?

Kind of a hassle for about a week or two. Everyday, I was dealing with this bird’s art.?

He was prolific.

Sometimes I would peer out the window that looks out onto the driveway.?

And ack! Jackson would be perched on a mirror. Sometimes letting loose.?

So brazen.?

So cheeky.?

So audacious.

If I walked to the car, he would stand there, as if he were taunting me, daring me to go closer.

I spoke with another friend about the bird problem.

She had a different take.

What if he was sent here as an animal guide?

Was he some sort of spirit bringing me a message?

What if I was trying to drive away a messenger, someone trying to help me out?

I set about trying to suss out what his message might be.

If anything, I concluded, he was so persistent. And so tenacious.?

Like the dandelions on my lawn that bloom so close to the ground. They seem to have evolved to keep blooming on ever shorter stems, to survive the mower.

Jackson didn’t hold back. He went all-in. And for a normal sized bird, he sure did make a big visual impact on the world.?

I’m convinced he was sent to tell me to be persistent with my goals … to stay the course.

Jackson is no longer visiting me. Yes, he’s popped out of my life.?

Perhaps he knew that I got his message.

Loud and clear.