Bird Nerd

I just saw a pretty bird dancing along my back deck railing. I watched him from the window for a minute before he got nervous and flew away.   Don't you think birds are so nervous? They're so vigilant always looking around making sure they're safe. I guess that's why you can never get too close.

This is the bird I saw. It's a Northern Flicker. I know that because I looked it up years ago.  I had asked for a bird book for Christmas and for the next year or so I took that book with me every time we went camping. I was always excited to look up a new bird. I think the first time I saw this bird was at our house in Ogden. We had lots of trees and so we saw a variety of birds stop in.

I love birds. I love the sounds they make especially when I'm on an early morning hike. I feel like they're welcoming me to their home and I just feel a lot of peace when I hear them.

Last summer at girls camp I was with some girls when we saw this bird flying around.

I said to them matter-of-factly "that's a Western Tanager"

Then I thought to myself "I'm such a nerd!"  Anyway, I first saw this bird when we were camping in Montana years ago. It was such a colorful bird for the mountains of Montana. I wanted to know right away what it was and when I looked it up I found out it was a Western Tanager.

Birds can be so funny. Have you ever seen a robin try to extract a worm from the ground? It is so interesting and funny at the same time. I'll never forget the first time I saw one doing this.
Aaron and I used to live in my grandma's one bedroom apartment when we were first married. There was a big picture window in front that gave us a beautiful view.   When Emma was born I spent a lot of time on the couch nursing and just a lot of time inside with her in front of that window.  I had never spent so much time inside and this big window was my connection with the world.  With my new pace of motherhood I began to notice things I hadn't ever noticed before. One of these things was how a robin tries to find a worm.
  It cracked me up and still does when I see this. A robin hops around on the grass looking this way and that because he doesn't want to get hurt you know. Then he cocks his head toward the ground as if to listen. If he doesn't hear anything then he hops along to a new spot and cocks his head again like he can actually hear a worm.  If he thinks there is one then he begins to dig with his beak. Sometimes he finds one and sometimes he doesn't. The funny part is watching the tug of war go on between the worm and the bird.  Those worms just don't want to give up. Finally he gets it out and gobbles it up or flies away with it.

Who knew that birds used their ears to find worms? And who knew that watching a bird find a worm could be so entertaining?  I think there are a lot of other cool things out there we just never notice because we are too busy.

Enough of my nerdy bird stories. I didn't really have time to write this lengthy post anyway. I've got to go call my sister who just happens to be named Robin.
Good bye.