I am joining Chrisy at Living A Good North Coast Life for her "Reconnecting With Nature" series. As we bloggers sit around connected to our computers, it is a great way to force us to step outside and maybe notice something new in the natural world or just appreciate something that we see every day. Read more about the Reconnect with Nature - one photograph at a time idea here.
Birds, birds, birds. Birds are everywhere at this time of year!
On our last trip to the arboretum, we saw a huge raptor sitting on the edge of one of the university buildings. My camera couldn't capture it very well. It might have been a Red-tailed Hawk.

It was really cool to see it sitting there, looking so regal. We see hawks on an almost daily basis when we are driving on the highway. They sit in the trees or on light posts and signs. This one was up so high, looking like a sentry keeping watch.
Then in our own backyard, we have tons of little song birds. We have a great wooden shed that is open at the top so the birds fly in and out. It is right next to the chicken coop, so it is a perfect place for these little birds - shelter, water, and chicken feed too! Sparrows and chickadees build nests on and in the shed. We have three birdhouses on the outside of the shed and there are always nests in there. However, this year there are two other nests tucked up into the shed roof rafters. They are fantastic works of art, with bird feathers, chicken feathers, bits of hay, and other items the birds have collected.



The other morning when I went out to water the chickens, I saw this small white egg on the ground. It looked like it had frozen and started to crack open. It had been cold the night before - we had a huge icicle in the morning.

I don't know what type of bird it is from, but it definitely wasn't a stray chicken egg! Then later in the week, I saw two more of the same eggs on the chicken coop roof.


They were too far away from the nest to have just fallen out. I don't know if another bird removed them from the nest. I read that Brown-headed Cowbirds will do that, but I don't think I've seen them in my backyard. It was pretty neat to see the tiny little eggs, even though it means those baby birds haven't survived. We see a lot of turquoise blue robin egg shells, but I've never seen these intact white ones before. In fact, after writing this post, I happened to find a blue shell in the yard yesterday morning. It is so beautiful - I have to share more than one picture!



Last night we found this nest in our yard that had fallen out of the large Spruce tree that we call "The General". No eggs in it, so maybe it was an old nest.

The little babe and I have been seeing lots of birds on our daily walks with the dogs. Cardinals, Goldfinches, always loud Crows, a rare Bluebird, and once a big Flicker. We see three kinds of woodpeckers - Pileated, Downy, and Hairy. And all of the common birds for this area - Robins, Starlings, Grackles, Sparrows, Chickadees, Nuthatches. I was never really into birds before, but I am trying to be more observant so I can point these out to the little babe. I want her to know the difference between a Crow and a Chickadee and that a Bluebird is a treat to see.
Are you a birder? Have you seen the movie A Big Year? Its pretty funny! People get darn serious about their birds!