Proverbs 23:
5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats
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Just a quick post with a couple of interesting Bald Eagle stories.
Psalm 4:
4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.
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It’s the birdiest time of year and I cannot keep up!
As of this writing, I have two posts scheduled out and am so very behind on editing photos. I want to do that dreaded task of uploading our photos online for prints. I just learned our bird photo albums have not been updated since November. Today, I will share a few highlights and I may not be as regular with posting for the next few days.
If you wish to look at our year list, you’ll see our latest birds. Some are pretty neat, I think. I still need to get a couple of birds added, but need to have them confirmed.
For my blogging friend in California… We have one of your birds here! Maybe we can send some of ours your way, just look for the white throat.
A special Butterbutt-
Audubon’s Warbler
We’ve seen a Black-crowned Night-heron (Now what would this Alpha code look like? I’ll find out later), Lark Sparrow, Cape May Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler… The Bobolinks, Baltimore Orioles (five of them), Dickcissels, Red-headed Woodpeckers have returned to the yard. Oh, one of our poor birds has a LISP, the Lincoln’s Sparrow. People say these are not feeder birds… well, I don’t believe that! We have a nice sized group here.
The Kestrels seem finally settled and we’ve seen one Kestrel bringing food to the one in the box. For some reason, they’ve allowed Meadowlarks, Red-winged Blackbirds and Grackles to perch on their box. This seems odd, but I wonder if the one on the nest doesn’t bother with it as it would require getting off the eggs. A couple of hapless Starlings were flying about the box, but seemed terribly afraid to land. They left.
Thursday, we had a great evening of birding. In one and a half hours, we saw 48 species, all within a mile of home. We left as soon as the rain slowed to a drizzle. (We got 3 1/4 inches that day.) The flooding pasture gave us a new yard bird, Blue-winged Teal.
Saturday, was the once a month field trip and we reached a personal high count for the day. 86 species. I hope to create a page for this list.
What is missing so far is our Ruby-throated Hummingbird. We set out nectar hearing of early reports. Soon, soon…
Sadly, the Ring-necked Pheasants are rebounding and we know what that means… 
We hear a couple of the males from our house. Others are seeing them around Iowa as well.
1 Thessalonians 5:
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
Genesis 8:
21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
This male American Kestrel is a human imprint. This means he either thinks he’s human, or we are all Kestrels. He cannot relate to or form a bond with a wild Kestrel. He shows no fear of humans, dogs or cats.
He is a beauty, but this beauty is marred, all because some folk did not realize it was illegal to take a young Kestrel from its nest and raise him themselves. They possibly thought it was cool to have such a bird as a pet, not realizing the implications. This bird needed to be with its own kind during that crucial age. Now he is merely a shadow of what he could have been. He is kept by the raptor rehabber, but he cannot be used as a foster parent to any young brought in. He doesn’t know how to be a Kestrel.
We are coming to that time of year when there will be young birds. Because of the risk of imprinting, it is very important you do not care for the young yourself, if at all possible, when you see a need. Besides it being illegal in North America, where many of my readers are, there is the risk of the birds imprinting on humans, thus not being able to have the skills needed to survive in the wild.
I’ve heard of too many cases, where a person thinks they can take care of a bird until it is old enough to fly, but there is so much more than that! Can humans teach a bird to hunt, or find seeds suitable to their diets? Can we train the young birds how to react when a predator is nearby? Some humans may have a fine talent for whistling, but can they teach the young males their specific songs? Some things birds do instinctively, but as in the case of the Kestrel above, the ability to use instincts was greatly hindered, so he can not be considered a wild bird.
Here is a listing that includes wildlife rehabilitates in US and Canada.
Matthew 11:
5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
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This was not in my hand, but in some one’s with a little more experience than I. The little one who took these pictures was enthralled with the face and eyes, so no pictures of his furry looking feet. They are strong!
Do you notice anything wrong with this bird? It looks ok for the most past. He had suffered from West Nile Virus, but recovered, except for his eyes. The diseased damaged his retinas, so he cannot see well enough to hunt. You can see the one eye having what looks like a tear. They have kept this bird for educational presentations.
Here he is with his tufts partially up. What a beautiful bird and he doesn’t look so mean, but those in the wild are some of the fiercest hunters.
While on the subject of Great Horned Owls, you want to see a baby?
This little one was found on the ground, so brought to SOAR. After checking to make sure there are no injuries, it was placed in the pen with the other Great Horneds, who have adopted this one. It will learn how to be an owl (Already showing signs of distrust toward humans. This is a good thing, it needs to be wary in the wild.) and when one of the adults is ready to be released, this one will be released with it to continue learning the skills it needs to survive.
Romans 8:
26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
This was amazing. We saw this bird for the first time near Mosquito Creek Sunday evening. Yesterday (23 April), this bird decided to grace our pasture with its presence. What an amazing day it was. That is when we had birds #99 and #100 come to our yard. You saw bird one hundred already, the Purple Finch. This was #99.
This is a cool hawk. The main portion of its diet is grasshoppers. During breeding season, they will eat other things, but overall they are great to have around for gardeners. We could have used one here last year. 
Because they mainly eat bugs, they need to migrate to find their favored foods, going all the way to Argentina. Sadly, the use of pesticide there is causing many of these birds to starve.
Bird facts from All About Birds.
