Birds

I didn't pay much attention to birds before I lived in the rent house. Before that they were just creatures who made too much noise some mornings and woke me up. My appreciation for them started growing when I realized just how many different types lived around me. I hung up a feeder in the front yard and would catch myself staring at it for long periods of time. Then my walks with the dogs around the neighborhood heightened my interest, because I started listening to their calls. By the end of my time at the rent house, I could distinguish cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, grackles, crows, and hawks. I loved hearing the sound of the whippoorwill during the night, and would occasionally get to hear an owl. The screech owls had a really neat call, sounding like little horses.

I now find them all fascinating. So much so that I could even find myself as a true birdwatcher, binoculars in hand and field journal in backpack. I constantly listen when I'm out in the yard and would love to learn more calls. There is a bird that migrates here every summer that has such a crazy call. It's really loud and seems to silence other birds, like when hawks cry out, but it's not like any hawk call I've ever heard. I know he's big, but he always flies over really high and likes to sit in the tops of trees so I haven't been able to get a really good look at him. He's really good at staying camouflaged. I heard him for the first time this morning, and smiled to know that he is back again this year. I'm determined to figure out what kind of bird he is.

My grandfather always had bird books so that they could look them up if they saw a new one, or if one just happened to come up in conversation. My parents continued the tradition and have a really big National Geographic bird book on their shelf. One day Gabriel was rummaging around for something to do, and tried to pull that heavy book off the shelf my himself. We helped him get it down, thinking he would want to give it right back once he saw that it was just a bunch of bird pictures. He sat on the floor and looked through the whole thing, asking questions all along. This impressed my mother so much that she gave him a smaller version of the book to take home.

He looks through it often, and has his favorite pages. He loves the page with the condor and vultures for some reason. He loves seeing anything with bright colors, and has always loved cardinals. But the neatest thing about it is that he will run to it to look one up if we see a new one in the yard. I told Jav during dinner one night that I saw a ruby-throated hummingbird drinking from our feeder, and Gabriel forgot he was eating dinner and hopped up to run and get his book. I love this, that he is such a curious child and wants to know more. I guess it just runs in the family.