Birdwatching - A Cheep Hobby

Sometimes I like to eat birds, but sometimes I just like to watch ‘em.

Let me just say this right off the bat.  I’m not a nature girl. I’m really scared of bears.  Give me the good ol’ suburbs anytime.

But everyday when Sadie and I go for our walk, I’ve noticed that something’s been creeping up on me.  Yep, it’s true.  I’m really starting to like bird-watching.

This new hobby has only come about since I moved to Texas four years ago.  In Southern California, we only seemed to have crows and these cute little chubby brown birds ( I don’t know what they are - a type of  wren maybe?).  Oh, yes, and a flock of wild parakeets that my mom says are the descendants of escapees from a pet store fire 40 years ago.  I don’t know, though, that could just be one of those urban legends you hear so much about.

One time in Cali, I did see a ginormous black crow strolling down the sidewalk with a yellow lollipop sticking out of the side of his mouth.  He put me in mind of W.C. Fields.  I like crows - they have flair.

But here in Texas there are all kinds of birds that I have never seen before in my life.  I’ve seen red robins and blue birds - birds I’d only seen pictures of in books.  They are so beautiful in real life.  I can’t tell you how excited I was when I first spotted these.

I’ve also seen these: little tiny black birds with yellow beaks. They have round ovals of bright red on each wing. Cute cute cute.

I now can see that bird’s really are descended from dinosaurs, too.  One time I saw 2 HUGE turkey buzzards eating a flattened bunny rabbit in the street right in front of my house.  Those birds were scary! Each one must have weighed at least 40 lbs.  Their wingspan was a good eight feet.  Their claws looked like deadly daggers. And they refused to budge when a car came driving down the street.  They would just glare right at the driver and sure enough, the driver would be intimidated enough to steer a wide circle around the feeding birds.  I wanted to go for my walk, but I waited ’til they finished their meal and flew away.  I was too scared to walk by them. They were right outside my front door - they had me pinned down but good. Just like in Jurassic Park.

I also know now why some birds are called “bird brains”.  Every spring at my old house two wrens would make a nest on top of the rain gutter spout.  They would lay their eggs, and then the eggs would hatch.  Then, like clockwork, the mama and papa wren would begin throwing their live but still helpless baby birds out of the nest. These poor babies didn’t even have their feathers yet, so I know they weren’t yet ready to be kicked out of the nest.  I’m guessing mama and papa didn’t like the dogs in the yard.  I don’t know.  This was very upsetting to me - still, they came back every year and did the exact same thing. The first year this happened I called my husband at work crying and crying. I didn’t know what to do.  He’s so sweet, he came right home, and called around until he found a bird sanctuary that would take in the lone little survivor.  That’s how I found out they were wrens - the bird lady told me.

You all already know about Quackers, the mama duck.  She wasn’t a bird brain.

One time on my walk I saw a huge hairy tarantula just lying there right on the sidewalk.  It was deader than a doornail.  Now I know that isn’t a bird, but that’s another creature I’d never before seen in real life.  Also, I have a feeling it might have gotten there by means of a bird.  Maybe the bird was carrying the tarantula off in its beak for a tasty meal, then accidentally dropped it. That’s the only way I can figure a huge hairy tarantula would wind up lying dead in the middle of a sidewalk.

Sometimes I’m not too eager to go for my walk.  I get lazy.  But then I start thinking about all the interesting birds I might see, and that helps motivate me.  It’s so uplifitng to watch a bird sitting on a branch, little beak tilted towards the sky, singing his little heart out just because the sky is blue and the sun is shining.  That is really something.