For every beast of the forest is Mine,
And the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the mountains,
And the wild beasts of the field are Mine.
Psalm 50:10-11

I got to know one of God’s birds a little better this morning!

It’s quite windy today and apparently the momma bird was hanging out at home instead of being buffeted by the blustery gusts. As I walked down our path to check out the nest, this bird came rocketing out of the crevice. I didn’t have my long lens on, so these grainy shots are the best I could capture as I tried to quickly back away from the nest and show the momma that I was no danger to her, or her babies.

I feel like I’m showing you fuzzy images of some bigfoot creature, asking you to believe me that this is a bird. I can see why she picked my rockery to hang out in. She’s a dull grey color along her breast, with a chestnut-brown back/wings and an almost black head. She blends in perfectly with our rockery and the patio below. You can barely distinguish her from the rocks. Ignore the weeds. Find the bird.

I’ve done some checking in my book of natural history and subsequently on a few bird watching websites and have decided that I think what we have is a dark-eyed junco.

Checking into the nesting habits has only confirmed for me the identity of our birds. My kids are thrilled to know the species of our momma bird. The good news is, I didn’t scare her away with my photo taking. The bad news…my big clompy feet on the path may have today. Didn’t get a clear view of the nest when I startled her – I’ll check again later today to see if we have more eggs. On a side note. My kids have named the momma birdie Gazelle. The name made no sense at all until my daughter explained that it’s because she’s a Dark-Eyed Junco, and gazelles have dark eyes too. I checked. She’s right. How do kids know this stuff? Oh yeah. Because books.

Hmmmm. Maybe we should get out more.

There. That’s better.