OK, so we have this "tradition" around here of acquiring uninvited National Geographic type house guests when Brodie is at work. I'm talking about snake lizards, rats, insects, and birds of various types...
they all love to invade our home specifically when Daddy is gone.
But not this time, THANK THE LORD!
So, the other day when Brodie and I were upstairs we suddenly heard the kids shrieking in the kitchen.
Being that shrieking (to our dismay) is not a terribly out of the ordinary raucous around here,
we took our time to see just what the commotion was all about.
"Bird! Bird! There's a bird in the house!!!" they all yelped.
Now, we've had birds in the house before (again, always when Dad was at work), but I could never have imagined just what had flown in this time...and gotten himself trapped behind the bread box in the kitchen window:
Let's just say...shrieking justified. Check out this guy's claws!
Hello!? It's not like we live in the middle of nowhere (though how I wish we did!).
We live in a (much too) normal suburban neighborhood and yet
this is who came for a visit right through our backyard sliding glass door.
this is who came for a visit right through our backyard sliding glass door.
He thrashed about in our kitchen bay window, trying everything he could to get out until finally he got himself stuck.
Poor guy! Poor us too...
How do you get a gigantic hawk/harrier/who-knows-what kind of jumbo size bird of prey out of the house??
Poor guy! Poor us too...
How do you get a gigantic hawk/harrier/who-knows-what kind of jumbo size bird of prey out of the house??
Fortunately, Brodie WAS home this time (my hero!) and little did I know I'd married a natural born bird whisperer. Without a blink, my trusty husband whipped out his handy dandy closet dowel and got the [huge!] bird to perch on it. What?!
{Please just imagine the amount of shrieking by this time...}
Then, he swooped the poor frightened little [BIG] thing back out the same way he'd come in.
Oh my! It was definitely a sight. That's him up on the basil plant he mutilated in all his hysteria. I'm just glad he didn't fly into the front room of the house or up into the bedrooms!
Anyway! Need less to say, it was a bit of excitement for the day and now we have another impromptu research project to boot thanks to our {accidental} catch of the day!
(I think we've narrowed it down to one of/all of these.)
Here's a video of a hen harrier which we've come to learn is a type of hawk.
Looks pretty similar to our house guest:
And more birds of prey in slow motion flight. Beautiful!
"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"
Matthew 6:26
Matthew 6:26