Birds!

Yesterday was bird day around here :)

First we were driving down the road and I see this very large black bird go gliding to the top of a roof (that picture is off the net, I didn't have a camera and I was driving at the time). It settles down and as I drive past I catch a glimpse of a red head. When we got home from our trip I found this very cool bird identification site . You scroll down to the pictures and click on each one, putting in the characteristics of the bird you saw and narrowing down your choices. I put in everything I could and it gave me three results. Two were totally out but the third was spot on. A turkey vulture! I didn't even know they lived in NJ but it turns out they are quite common. But my town is not in the country. We're either a very, very large town or a very, very small city, but either way, the street I was on was a busy one. An odd place to see a vulture!

It also made me think about how weird and cool the human brain is because when I was driving past I wondered if that was a turkey vulture. I really had no idea what a turkey vulture was, but that's the bird name that popped into my head and go figure, I was right. My brain knows more than I do I guess (which is probably true of everyone).

I'm also wondering about that time a few weeks ago when I was walking the dog and came upon two people at the base of a tree staring up at a very large bird in the branches. It was getting dark and I don't know what it was, but I guess we have a lot more diversity of wildlife here in the urban suburbs than I thought.

But wait, there's more! Then the kids wanted to go to the playground. On the way home, we walked a different way back to the car. We're walking across the town hall parking lot and Owen says "Awwwww, a dead bird". Bridget replied "It's not dead, it's still breathing!". My mind said "Not again!". Did I write about the Killdeer I found in the street a few weeks ago that Robert and Bridget took to the Raptor Trust? Another bird I had no idea lived around here.

This new little guy didn't look good. Maybe because he was in the parking lot in full sun or maybe he hadn't eaten in awhile, but he looked listless. I emptied my bag and gave Bridget everything to hold and then carefully picked him up with it. He only struggled briefly which also made me think he didn't have long.

We got to the car and I found that Bridget was afraid to hold it. Owen I didn't even ask (and he didn't volunteer). Thankfully we have an automatic transmission and I got to drive home with one hand while holding the little guy with the other.

We put him in the shoe box (from the new shoes we had just bought that day) and after googling the directions to the Raptor Trust, we were off.

The really friendly guy who took the bird from us said he looked good and would be fine. Huh. Shows how much I know about birds.

So while there we toured the place. I don't think I've ever been there. It was very cool. And a little sad of course, since all the birds on display are too injured to be released in the wild. I asked the man about the turkey vulture I had seen that morning and he was the one who told me how common they are. He then showed me the cage with a turkey vulture in it, with a black vulture next to it (black head instead of red). We walked around for awhile and saw all the birds they have, including a bald eagle, some perigrin falcons, gold eagles, the vultures and various owls. Bridget suggested maybe the Girl Scouts could do a field trip there. She's going to bring it up to her Grandma. We took some literature and dropped some donations in the box before we left.

As interesting as it all was, I hope we're done with emergency Raptor Trust trips for now. I wouldn't mind seeing that turkey vulture again though.