The Bird That Learned My Whistle

For years I've whistled the same little tune when I walk out to my car every morning, a few notes from an old song my dad used to whistle.

This spring, a mockingbird started nesting in the hedge by my driveway. One morning, as I walked out, I heard my tune coming from the hedge. The bird was whistling it back. Perfectly.

Now it does it every morning. Sometimes it whistles it before I even get outside, as if it's waiting for me. My neighbors have heard it. The mail carrier asked me if I knew there was a bird "singing your song."

I called my dad to tell him. He's seventy-eight and was delighted beyond words. He asked me to hold the phone up to the hedge so he could hear it. The bird whistled. My dad whistled back. For a second, three of us were singing the same song.