The Birds That Fear No Man

I have noticed this happening over the last few years, with blackbirds in particular. See, when you walk past them they used to fly away without fail. It's a natural instinct. But recently I have observed they are losing their fear of humans. They're getting almost like the gulls at a seaside resort. They will sit still on a tree branch (in built-up areas at least) and ignore you even if you walk past them within an arm's length. Very strange.

Today I arrived at our gate to open it and lo and behold there was one of them perched on top, and I actually stopped before reaching out to move the gate. Eye to eye. It looked at me like, "what are you looking at?", lol.

I said something like, "hey c'mon I've gotta get through there", and lifted a hand, which finally made it panic and flee all of a few metres into the garden. The split second before it flew, something in its eyes changed as it realised I wasn't walking past like all the other wingless characters do. If I wanted to, I may have been able to reach out and kill it. In the natural world, THAT IS TOO SLOW BIRDIE.

Better hope this agenda to starve out the world doesn't come to fruition, or you won't last long against a hungry public.