David and I decided to go on a walk at a park in Orem on Sunday. We had been to the park before and it has beautiful grass and paths. The park has a pond with various birds and fish in it. We discovered these beautiful bushes with pink flowers on them that were very fragrant that we will have in our yard someday.
Anyway, on our walk we decided to sit on some rocks next to the pond. We watched the ducks teaching the baby ducks to swim and preen themselves. In the middle of the pond there is a bunch of cattails (or something similar) full of birds. We were fascinated by the many yellow-headed blackbirds. Above is a picture of a male. Below is a picture of the female.
We just sat and chatted for a few minutes when a female yellow-headed blackbird flew a little too close for comfort by me. David laughed as a buried my hooded head in his shoulder. We continued talking and joking around when this bird came back around and dived directly for us! It was terrifying!! We got up and started walking away as it came by one last time. Apparently we were still too close to this female for her comfort. I am guessing she had a nest nearby, but we couldn't see it and she just went back to the middle of the pond to her cattail perch. Across the pond from us were a couple of boys who found this act pretty entertaining. It was scary. I kept imagining this horrifying image from a time we were flipping through the channels on T.V. The image I was picturing was of these huge blackbirds that had lunged after sheep and burrowed into their backs and sucked their blood/ate their flesh. TERRIFYING! Luckily for us, we came away from our Sunday stroll unscathed by the dive-bombing mama bird.
Anyway, on our walk we decided to sit on some rocks next to the pond. We watched the ducks teaching the baby ducks to swim and preen themselves. In the middle of the pond there is a bunch of cattails (or something similar) full of birds. We were fascinated by the many yellow-headed blackbirds. Above is a picture of a male. Below is a picture of the female. 
We just sat and chatted for a few minutes when a female yellow-headed blackbird flew a little too close for comfort by me. David laughed as a buried my hooded head in his shoulder. We continued talking and joking around when this bird came back around and dived directly for us! It was terrifying!! We got up and started walking away as it came by one last time. Apparently we were still too close to this female for her comfort. I am guessing she had a nest nearby, but we couldn't see it and she just went back to the middle of the pond to her cattail perch. Across the pond from us were a couple of boys who found this act pretty entertaining. It was scary. I kept imagining this horrifying image from a time we were flipping through the channels on T.V. The image I was picturing was of these huge blackbirds that had lunged after sheep and burrowed into their backs and sucked their blood/ate their flesh. TERRIFYING! Luckily for us, we came away from our Sunday stroll unscathed by the dive-bombing mama bird.
Beautiful creatures birds are. Unless they are killing you.
ReplyDeleteI love these birds! My grandma said that they come around when it has been a moist year. It's a little more interesting then our usual robins. Don't tell them I said that, I don't want robins attacking me.
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