Bird watching.

I've got a confession. I love birds. I mostly love hawks, but I do love me some waterfowl. Now, this love is no precursor to knowledge. I know a little bit about birds and animals from Planet Earth and the Wildlife Fact Files binder I had in late elementary school. However, I find that when you know a little about birds you can basically lie to others to make yourself look knowledgeable. I mean, I know a few things. I can tell a juvenile Great Blue Heron from a Snowy White Egret (It's in their beak and leg color!) I know that there is a Red Shouldered Hawk frequenting 97 and I also can identify a Red Tailed Hawk on command. I think I could tell you the difference between a black vulture and turkey vulture and maybe distinguish between a Grackle and a Brown headed Cow bird.

So imagine my surprise when this jacked up bird started nesting in my front lawn... and I didn't know what it was! Imagine my distress! If only I had bought Audubon's field guide!

This bird looked like a heron, but it wasn't big enough to be a great one. So today I decided to sit down and Google this problem out.

Apparently, we have a "Little Heron" nesting in our yard. I don't know if it's a Little Blue Heron, a Little Green Heron, or even a Little Striated Heron... but a Little Heron it is. Well actually I ruled out the striated one because those live in Malaysia. Forgive me for not being able to work out the species. This is why I should subscribe to an online encyclopedia. Maybe on my first day back tomorrow I'll take a moment and look it up in my favorite reference book- The Great Bird Encyclopedia.

Oh- and let's have a moment of silence because shortly after we discovered his identity one of the Little Heron's lay dead in the yard. At least his mate survived!

Love, Kaley