Yesterday, we walked in Forest Park. On these park walks, Anne brings along a pair of binoculars and likes to count the different bird species that we see. She likes to get a count of ten for par. Sometimes she games the system and begins by counting the backyard birds, but that usually makes it too easy for her tastes. Such was the case on this day. Generally, her count is a matter of rounding up the usual suspects, but not this time.  First off, she spied a Kestrel. It was sitting in a tree overlooking one of the golf course’s water hazards. We ended up stalking it for a few holes. After that encounter we first heard, before seeing a Red-headed woodpecker. We normally only see these birds out at Shaw’s Nature Reserve, so this was a first in the park for us. I think that there was a pair of them and they were calling to each other. This was at the east end of the course, which we had invaded and were trespassing on, but there was no one else around. So who knew? Finishing our round of golf, we headed over to Pagoda Circle, where we again first heard, before seeing a Kingfisher. After that bird, it really was a case of round up the usual suspects, but she never quite made it to ten and had to rely on the backyard birds to round out her dance card.

The pictured art features a giant cartoon-like bird. The painting’s deliberately absurd title does little to clear up this mysterious image. Fish cannot escape water and birds do not drink creeks dry. Compared to the huge bird, the tiny creek and fish are difficult to see. Birds may not drain creeks, but they do empty out our bird feeders. The saying, if pigs had wings, we’d call them birds comes to mind. We’re filling our feeders daily at this point, but as Anne has pointed out, if we didn’t want to do that every day, we could move them into the front yard again, where the birds abstain from them, but what would be the point.