Around noon I got a phone call from one of the neighbors up the road a bit. She told me there was a dead owl on the side of the road(a little further up) in case we wanted to go see it and try to identify it. She added that it wasn't bloody or otherwise injured looking. I was so glad she called!  She is a homeschool graduate and from her facebook posts I think her "geeky" side is right up our alley.
  Anyhow...I scrambled to get everyone in matching shoes and to find our two favorite bird identifying books and we hopped in the van.

  We determined it to be a barred owl. They aren't very common here. The feet were stunning! This picture doesn't do justice to how large and perfect they were. I wouldn't let the kids touch it, and didn't want to set a bad example, so we didn't turn it over(oh, how I wanted to).We looked up the procedure for what department to notify of a dead raptor(health dept) and I called them but they weren't there. Apparantly they like to test them for West Nile virus.

I love owls. I am so sad this one died. It would have been awesome to see it alive.

I saw my first bald eagle of the season a couple days ago. I love spotting them all winter.

And...more bird news lol. We got to church Sunday morning and there was a large box by the nursery. Inside was a rooster for me! One of our friends had an extra that was getting picked on and gave him to me.His name is Elvis and he is a cochin/copper maran mix. Handsome boy!

He is the silver and black boy. Georgie,our delaware hen(the white with black speckles on her neck) was the dominant one but she has gladly stepped down to Elvis and they galavant about. It is so nice to look out back and see that big guy leading them around.
   Griffon rolled his foot while playing outside today. I have had him stay off it all day and will be taking him in tomorrow for x-rays if it still hurts like it does today. He is my most active boy and loves to flip/run/jump so sitting still has been a challenge for him.He keeps saying it doesn't hurt anymore and then he tries to walk and grimaces.
    Christian has a visit with the orthopedic surgeon next week to discuss his leg length discrepency from when he broke his femur at gymnastics. It has been 3 years and he has a hard time. I am very curious to see what the Dr. has to say.
   Luke has taken to standing for about 5 seconds, many times throughout the day. He also loves to bounce into a kneeling position. I love watching him find his balance.