Bird Stuff

I should be grading papers, but. . .

--Mike called as he was leaving for work and told me to go look at the large hawk that was perched on the poolhouse fence. From his angle he thought it was a red tail, a common hawk around here. I watched it for about ten minutes, including with binoculars, and when it finally flew, I could see that the tail was straight and striped, not fanned and rust-colored. It wasn't a red tail, it was a northern harrier. Red tails can be seen all winter, but I usually only see about one northern harrier a year.

--The feeder birds are eating so much seed they are going to put us in the poorhouse.