BIRD WATCHING!!!

Man, I don't even know where to start with this one. I've been an avid bird watcher my whole life. I like the littler dudes that hop on the ground, not walk. Their little legs are too stubby!

My problem is, I'm all watch and no identify. I don't know who's who really. But I sure do love those little dudes!

I'm not too keen on the gulls. You'll be tearing up the stale bread into hunks, tossing it around the yard, all the little dudes are like "we're saved! It was such a lean winter," but then suddenly whole flights and grim formations of dive bombing gulls bust up their little luncheon and they're left on the outskirts.

F'ers!!!!

But yeah, birds are overall pretty great. And again, the little guys especially - who could not love 'em? I love wrens! I love wrens, sparrows and finches best, probably. Not in that order though. And not as if I could always infallibly tell between.

I also love jays, and cardinals, the two very closely associated in my mind (but of course, so easy to distinguish between!). They are in the next order above, in terms of size and build, but they seem a quantum leap up in terms of sheer jocky athleticism. Sparrows are kind of dorks by comparison.

I love those little dorks! Look at 'em hop for their bread!

Oh, okay. I guess I love gulls, too (I'm such a sucker). They are the self-machined, wind-hewn soaring explorers and piratical scavengers of our shores and seas, brash and pushy and aggressive half because they have to be, half because they can.

Condors are freaky cool! Hawks are so piercing, hovering high up against the wind, then uttering that cry of theirs to freeze their prey. Eagles are magnificent. Do they have a cry like that? I get the sense, maybe they don't need it.

Peacocks are punk pioneers, in my view.

I'm so naive, though, in terms of bird-watching. I could never rattle off bird names with any confidence (not counting fictitious ones that I coin on the spot, those are easy to rattle off with confidence).

I'm also a bit of a flower-watcher. Same similar problem there.