Kelli,
Your post really made me laugh out loud. The Northern Mockingbird is a year-round resident here in Florida and we have hundreds in our neighborhood. I think many people don't much care for them because they are so territorial and defend their nests against most humans, animals and other birds ... but they never seem to bother me possibly because I feed them blueberries, raisins and bits of mango so perhaps they don't consider me a threat. When they first laid those eggs in that nest in my earlier photo, I would go over and peek in every so often. One of the adult birds would perch on the fence or at the edge of the roof and watch me but never screeched or dove at me. At our old house we had a little courtyard in front of the house that had a short brick wall. When the mockingbird babies fledged the nest I'd put a saucer on the brick wall with fruit bits and the adults would come with the young ones and eat. Like all baby birds, the screeching is usually when they want to be fed and I guess I've gotten used to it. We've had a lot of baby Grackles around the past month; they follow the adults to the feeders, perch in the tree, on the shepherds hook and on the ground beneath the feeders, screeching to be fed.
You must be pretty good at sneaking up on them! Good shot!
