White Ibises at the park by Lee
The Old Man and the Ibises
by Emma Foster
Once there was a little boy who had short brown hair and was kind of short for his age. Every week, his parents would take him to a small park by a big lake.
When they arrived, the little boy fed the ibises bread and talked to them about how he was about to start school. The ibises ate as much bread as they could hold and decided they liked hearing the little boy talk.
Several years passed and the little boy became a teenager. He started having problems with his grades. After failing another math test, the boy drove down to the park with some bread. Watching the ibises fly over and eat the bread made the boy feel a lot better and the ibises listened patiently as he told them all about how he could not get his grades to improve.
Eventually the teenage boy became a man and got married. The ibises started to multiply. A few years later, the man brought his children to the park. The ibises did the same. The man and his wife watched as their kids fed the ibises and as the ibises showed their children how to eat the bread with them. The man also taught his children how to talk to them.
White Ibis on Table Listening by Lee
Many years passed and all the man’s children grew up and moved away. The man grew old, but he still drove to the park every week to feed the ibises.
Finally, one day, the old man grew too old to drive. He took one last drive to the park however. The ibises came as usual. The old man told the ibises that he wouldn’t be able to come and see them anymore because he couldn’t drive much longer. The ibises were very sad when they heard this statement. As the old man drove home, the ibises decided to fly after his car and follow him home. Soon there was a great flock of birds following the old man’s car.
The next day the old man opened his front door to get the mail and found the flock of ibises. The old man was very happy about the ibises coming to his house every day. From that day on, the ibises flew to the old man’s’ house so he could feed them bread.
American White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) coming to the yard by Lee
The End
Lee’s Addition:
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; (Colossians 3:12 KJV)
Emma has written another fine Bird Tale for us. It is enjoyable to watch as she is developing her writing skills. Each tale is better than the one before. This one is very heart touching. (Maybe it meant a lot because I wonder if the birds will come “people-watching” here when I can no longer go watch them.)
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24 KJV)
To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, (Psalms 92:2 KJV)
There is much friendliness and kindness shown in this story.
More Bird Tales by Emma Foster
- Mrs. Patterson’s Parrot
- George The Hummingbird
- Norman Joins The Baseball Team
- Reginald, Turkey Commander
- Lizzy and the Penguin Catapult
- Reginald the Turkey Commander on Christmas
- Martha and the Go-Kart Race
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Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus 
looks cool with that bold eyes :)
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Very nice story, Emma!
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Emma, you have done it again — another fine bird tale! — and a reminder that we must be careful as we grow old, because this life moves on, and so do we, so we must glorify God with the daily opportunities that we are given — one day at a time — as you have done with your creative writing talent. More than 15 years ago, my son and I would regularly feed the ducks (mostly mallards, plus lesser scaups during the winter months) at a pond near Furneaux Creek (in Denton County, Texas), in the evening. But one day we were in a hurry — I don’t recall why — so we drove straight home, bypassing the pond, then driving about a block, taking a right turn, then after another block taking another right turn, then driving down the hilly street to near the end of the cul-de-sac in our neighborhood, parking the car by our mailbox. However, as we got out of the car (and I approached our mailbox at the edge of our small front yard), and as we stepped onto the sidewalk toward our home’s front yard, we were greeted by a host of energetically quacking ducks! — apparently they wanted to know why we didn’t make our usual stop to feed them at the pond. Embarrassed, we quickly found something to feed them, and we quickly scattered food scraps on our front yard, to satisfy our avian guests (and they gobbled up all the bread scraps)! Yes, I felt a bit ashamed of myself, that day, for disappointing the mallards that day — but I’m pretty sure that they “forgave” us. Life gets busy — but that should not become an excuse for ignoring those whom we have an opportunity to be kind to (Galatians 6:10), even if they are mallards who live at a nearby pond. So thanks again, Emma, for your enjoyable story — and for triggering this memory of the mallards who scolded me for bypassing the pond that day.
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Thanks. Ours do have black under the tips of their wings, noticable when flying.
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Your American white ibis is actually all white, but our Australian one is more pied, as it has black on its tail.
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