Birds of Paradise

I haven't posted in about 2 weeks, so thanks for being patient!  Now that I am posting, it is without pictures I took, and on a topic you probably don't want to hear about: BIRDS. 

I know, birds??  Let me tell you, in the past week I have seen some strange and beautiful birds in my neck of the woods.  And here come the stories...

First, on Saturday, while driving back from Idaho, I was gazing out the window.  Jason almost wrecked the truck because of the loud gasp I let out.  I saw (now get this!) a blue parrot sitting on a telephone wire.  I was so excited that I had found someone's lost pet!  I called our friend, an avid animal lover, to ask her what I should do.  When she inquired as to what I had found, I was answered with this, "oh that isn't someone's pet, that is a wild Ymir parrot."  People, we do not live in the tropics.  It isn't warm here. Okay, maybe for a month out of the year it would be considered hot, but that's a stretch!  Wild parrots?  In Ymir?  (pronounced, y-mur)

She proceeded to tell me the following story.  A few years ago a drug dealer/grower in Ymir employed a lot of parrots as a sort of police warning system.  When he/she got caught, so did the parrots.  Well, almost all of them.  Now there is a small gathering of birds that remain and I was lucky enough to see one! 

Photo taken from woopstudios.com, they make amazing posters!

Okay, on to bird story number two.  On Monday I saw a seagull with only one leg.  Not nearly as exciting as seeing a wild blue parrot in Canada, but still.  It was amazing* to think that the bird had a significant injury, healed from it, and was still functioning well enough to keep up with his mates.  Because, you know, sea gulls don't go anywhere by themselves.  (do you know that?  not sure if I do either)  *I just googled one-legged seagull and there are a ton of pictures.  Maybe it isn't so amazing after all! 

Okay, one last bird story.  I love eagles.  End of story. 

Not really...So, this morning I went kayaking with a friend.  I kept hearing an eagle's call, but couldn't see it anywhere.  Then I realized it was sitting on the back of my kayak!  Another lie, but that would have been amazing!  The white head of the eagle was just barely visible in the tree tops of the forested hillside.  I am reminded daily at how amazing these animals are.  They are beautiful, relentless in their pursuit of food, and incredibly graceful.  I don't really like birds, but I love to see a bald eagle. 

Image from hd-desktop-wallpapers.blogspot.com

I'm American by birth and the Bald Eagle is the national bird.  I never saw an eagle, except in a zoo, until I moved to Canada.  I see them nearly every day now.  I don't think it will ever get old.  Ever.  And I also think maybe it should be Canada's national bird, since they don't have one.  (Weird, eh?)