Bird on Doorstep

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Yesterday I came home in the evening to find this small black bird sleeping on my doorstep. (The blue in the photo is my door.) It didn’t fly away, even after I drove up to the house, walked to the porch, went around the house to the back door, got my housemate Hernando and a camera, came back around, and took a photo. (And no, it wasn’t dead!) I’ve never found a bird sleeping on my porch before, so it was cool. We had just had a strong storm pass through, and I think it was looking for a safe place to rest.

Labor Day Weekend

During August 30-September 3, I took a long weekend holiday to visit my mom and friends in Tennessee. Between the six-hour drive to get there and a couple hour-long drives to Chattanooga from my mom’s home, I managed to put over 900 miles on my Jeep.

Since my mom is trying to sell her place, I spent part of the weekend helping her sort and clean. My mom has enough books to start her own library.

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Turkey in the … Lawn

In this part of Illinois there is not much interesting wildlife. We have the usual suburban critters (deer, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, skunks, opossums, coyotes), but it is rare to see anything more interesting.

Last Thursday I looked out my kitchen window in the morning and saw what I first thought was a turkey vulture because of its size (big!) and dark coloration. However, after observing it for a while, and noting its behavior and seeing its plumage from the back side, I realized it was a wild turkey. Evidently one of its legs was hurt, and it was limping and hopping around on the other leg. I just watched it for a while, and when I went outside to get in my car it hopped off into the woods.

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