Look! An actual BIRD!

I promise to you, all my devoted readers . . . I think there are 3 of you now since I went on my mini-blogcation when school started . . . anyway, I promise you that I still watch birds.  It’s just that I have also been on a photocation as well which means that I haven’t been taking pictures of them and without pictures . . . do I know if I really saw them?

What a zen puzzler.  If Liza sees a bird in the forest but has no camera, was she or it really there?

Anyway, I am making a conscious effort to work at it.  So, when I was walking to my car with the kids the other night and saw this lovely raven . . . I stopped my forward progress, got my camera out of the car, and took some pictures.  My children stared dumbfounded at a sight they hadn’t seen in months.  They then dropped their backpacks, took each other’s hands, and started dancing in a circle chanting “Mom is back!  Mom is back!”

Okay, I made that part up. They know better than to make that much noise near a bird I’m watching even if it is a raven who is making quite enough noise on her own.

Her own?  Why so sure it’s a her?  Well, I’m not SO sure — after all, all Ravens look alike.  I don’t think I’d know for SURE unless I saw one laying an egg.  However . . . what originally caught my attention was a male strutting his stuff on a nearby roof, puffing up his ruff, prancing back and forth, and kronking boldly.  He was quite a display.  Fall is when Ravens fall in love and reaffirm their lifelong love.  There are lots of courtship displays in the fall at my school — food sharing, nuzzling, kissing (and I’m talking about the birds here!  We don’t let the little kids act that way, thank you!).  So, I knew this gentleman was trying to impress a lady and there she was.

I don’t know though . . . does she look impressed?

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