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CHAPTER 1

The dead of winter along the River was not a solid freeze by any stretch of the imagination.  One from a more northern clime would enjoy it is as simply,  a crisp day.  St. Louis of Cayce hid amongst the leafless limbs of a wild marsh along the Congaree of South Carolina.  A distant descendant of the first St. Louis of the sand bars, he was young and in need of food found sparse at the river's edge this time of year.  It would be a month or so before the warehouse known as spring would be open for business.  All species of wildlife and particularly the songbirds worked hard for their rations.  In most cases the effort almost equaled the nutritional value found in those sparse findings.
 

 

This was his second winter.  He had learned during his first to puff his feathers up to conserve body heat and provide insulation from the cold.  He learned to stand facing the wind, tucking his head under a wing only when the sun finally dropped beyond the western horizon.  His kind is the last to roost at night and one of the first to rise.  His inerrant nervousness also kept him safer than most of his species.  Those who where more trusting of the human invention and their nonchalant attitude towards the native songbirds.

"Toolili toolili SKRRR?" 

 

Broke the solitude of the marsh making the red bird shutter his feathers and tighten them in preparation for flight.

 

In human terms..."Why do you sit there freezing, you silly red bird and not join me at the humans smorgasbord beyond the ridge?"  Such an intrusion could come from none other than "Raucous of the Wood".

  

 

Raucous was an acquaintance of sorts and the neighborhood first responder to all things deemed dangerous or eatable.  Loud, brash and even pushy this friend was always looking for the angles and in human terms was the explainer of all conspiratorial activities.  It was thought that he always told the truth or as close as he thought he had to get to it.  You just never knew if he was screaming as an alert for a new source of food or the danger of a voracious snake climbing a tree in search prey.  His approach was pretty much the same for most things.  But his favorite activity other than pontificating was to chase the numerous Barred and Screech owls of the bordering hardwoods.  There was nothing more fun than to swoop after the much larger bird and pester it to distraction.

 

"But there are cats, dogs and those hideous squirrels that all frighten me so.  I intend to live a long life and so I am not willing to take that chances of which you are so fond.  Besides, I prefer to feed on the ground and all those feeders or whatever they call them are six feed in the air.  Just doesn't instill confidence!"

 

"Pa-shaw, you should have been born a chicken instead of a songbird.  There are so many of us at these breakfasts that you would have enough warning to save your precious tail feathers.  Some of them even have gooey stuff with seeds mixed in.  I heard one of the humans call it suet and they can buy it for only a dollar ninety a cake at the Piggly Wiggly."

 

"Raucous what in the world is a Piggly Wiggly or for that matter a dollar ninety?"

 

"St. Louis, you really don't know much do you?  There is this big place where all the trees have been chopped down and the humans drive their shiny horseless things and put them between all the white rows of paint.  I guess their not too smart because somebody has to tell them how to stay between the lines.  Then they all walk into this big square place and disappear for hours on end.  When they finally reappear, they are pushing things that look like tangled wire on wheels. Then they have to put all kinds of stuff in their shiny things and leave."

 

"Really?"

 

"Yes, and the seagulls tell me that there is always food found round all those white lines.  Bags and boxes that smell like human food are lying all over.  But I don't think that's were the suet comes from.  Probably, they find it where ever they go in that big square place."

 

"Sounds much more complicated than scratching around the leaf litter and finding seeds, or a worm.  But I do see those bags and boxes along the walk here at the river.  Generally, they are right next to those big wood an plastic things with the black plastic bags inside.  I have looked through those things just before dark and found some tasty morsels.  Not many seeds though."

 

"Well you see Louis, you are part of the way there to feasting with the rest of us at the humans expense.  You already look through their leavings, why not just ease on over and  knock off lunch at the feeders.  Evidently they make a big an effort to feed us as they do their own kind that are not willing to provide for themselves."

 

"Well Raucous, I do provide for myself and am very proud of it.  And when the time comes to raise a family, I will provide for it as well.  I don't intend to take handouts unless it is absolutely necessary.  Even if the humans are foolish enough to provide for me and my family without my participating, I just don't think it's right.  Just like I don't think that it's right to create a mess along our river, it's just too beautiful"