Birdwatching

It is Spring Break, and I enrolled in a couple classes I need to renew my teaching certificate. What better time to get some undisturbed studying done, right? Wrong. It is a beautiful morning (supposed to be 85 today) and I have decided to sit on my porch and bird watch. Yes bird watch. If you remember, my favorite Christmas gift was a National Geographic field Guide to birds. A few weeks ago, Jon and I walked through a preserve that our local library backs up to. It was filled with small lakes (some call reservoirs) and birds, birds, birds. I had meant to look some of them up when I got home, but forgot. This morning I woke to the chirp, chirp, chirping of many morning birds, and reached over onto my nightstand to thumb through my field guide. I decided that today was a day to enjoy my natural surroundings. So I rummaged through the garage and found the binoculars. I moved one of my living room chairs onto the porch, and am snuggled up with a cup of tea. My school work is sitting next to me, but I have yet to crack it open. There are a lot of different birds in my front yard! There is one I am struggling to identify, but I think they are building a nest on my neighbors roof, so they aren't going anywhere. I hope the neighbors don't think I am looking in their windows. I have also noticed that 2 doors down there is a house we thought abandoned, and there is someone in the garage and doing yard work and I am terribly confused as to where they came from.
I have also discovered some great websites to help me with my classification. One site even has sound bites of the birds calls, which has forced me to admit that I have been wrong about a few. Which just means I will have to stay out here a little longer than planned.
I am also taking a break from my new found love of vampire books and I started reading a non-fiction book called Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding by Scott Weidensaul, and it is quite interesting, if you are into that kind of thing.