Eagles

 A few weekends ago, I took the kids to Farmington Bay for a bald eagle viewing day the DWR was hosting.

At this point, you might be thinking, "Hmm.  I didn't know Katie was into birding."

You are correct.  I'm not - although I did read "The Big Year" and really liked it (but I haven't seen the movie, so I can't give you a recommendation on that).

Or maybe you know exactly why I was there.

Meet Cole.  Future Audubon Society president (or chief or director or whatever they happen to call their highest up - I'm not really in the know).  Cole loves birds, especially birds of prey.  They are descendents of dinosaurs, you know.  

 

So we drove out, found the eagles, and Cole promptly informed me that one of the "eagles" was actually a hawk and then listed all of the ways in which he knew it, which I have forgotten.   

Ben and Annie each took a quick peek through the binoculars and then went about their own activities.  Ben's consisted of trying to find some way to sled himself down the hill and injuring himself while Annie, who is clearly her mother's girl, lasted about two minutes after this picture and then headed for the car and sat snacking the rest of the time.

 You can tell she was super into it, can't you?

 

 But, she should have stuck around because shortly after that, Adam Eakle from KSL Outdoors tried to interview me.  I politely declined since I would look like one of Jay Leno's Jaywalking interviewee's if I had to talk about birds (he should have known not to interview me - he overheard Cole explaining to me why it was a hawk and not an eagle and had seen my trying to hide behind things to avoid being filmed - clearly I was not looking for a television spot).  So, Cole got to be interviewed instead and I don't really remember what he said other than that eagles are his second favorite bird after raptors.  His claim to fame (if it ever airs).  He also got to interview the crazy lady that overheard me decline to be interviewed and ran over shouting, "I will!"  Lucky guy.

So anyway, that was our day at the bay.  Can you guess which one is the hawk?

Oh, and I will say, it was pretty cool when the eagles would actually leave the tree and swoop out over the bay.  So I guess I like birds after all.