Big Bird

And, no, I am NOT referring to your tall, bright, yellow, friendly neighbor on Sesame Street. I am referring to the bird that Brian saw in our yard the other day. The bird that most ornithologists classify as a 'raptor'. The bird that antagonizes, agitates, and intimidates all the little birds in the circle of life: the hawk.

My Mom and my stepdad, Scott, gave Brian and me a bird feeder for our housewarming gift when they came to visit in December. We were very excited about the prospect of making some new bird friends. After all, we are very animal friendly in this household with our bunny rabbit, Bun, our puppy dog, Jack, and our hopefully not permanent mouse, Mickey. (No offense, Mickey.) We thought it would be nice to add some birds into the mix. Plus, we've noticed it is actually really nice to have birds around in the middle of Winter. It makes Spring not seem so far away!

However, Brian and I don't know a whole hell of a lot about birds. Every 'bird' to us is...a 'bird'. We, obviously, can distinguish between a male cardinal (our state bird), a blue jay, and ... probably a blue bird, but we haven't seen one yet. Other than that, our bird knowledge is not that impressive. Nor are our bird ID skills. So, we've decided to try and snap some shots of the birds that we see and attempt to identify them. Check out the album below of what we've seen/been able to capture (in a non-threatening, very humane sort of way) so far:

At first, we just saw a lot of small birds, then we saw a blue jay which is really quite big compared to the other birds, then Brian saw a hawk. I'm beginning to wonder where this path is taking us. Based on my ornithological calculations, we will probably soon see an egret, a parrot, a vulture, maybe a crane, a flamingo, an ostrich...and then a pterodactyl, in that order.

We will be sure to take photos for your viewing pleasure!