Dec 14th 2019

I have seen so many different types of birds since we left home.   Baja is quite different from Canada, so naturally they will have different birds here,  

We travel with my bird book, you know, the one with the owl on the front. It’s got lots of bird pictures inside with a map in the top corner so you can see which part of North America they come from, oh yeah, it’s called Birds of North America, and my best friend Tobi gave it to me for my birthday when I turned 7,  we use it all the time to try and identify the birds we see.  Then, my mum writes up beside the bird in pencil the where and when,  There are some birds we’ve seen that aren’t in the book, they must have forgotten them, so we don’t know what they are or their names, but we I can tell that one was definitely a bird of prey, because it had a strong beak with a hook at the end, talons for catching his food, his wings were like an Osprey’s and a Turkey Vultures.  

One time in Loreto, we went for a really early morning bird tour with the man named Tom. My mum drove the golf cart and us kids ode on the back, it was more fun than walking.  I stood on the back where the golf bags were supposed to be.  Tom lent me a pair of binoculars so I  could see them up close, they were much better than my own pair.  I’m going to ask Santa for my own.  

On the golf course by a pond we saw some different types of ducks, the Coot and Pintail and Red Head and some geese, but they weren’t Canada geese, they were probably Mexican geese, they were brown.  We saw a beautiful American Kestral, she’s the smallest of all the Falcons.  A Vermillion fire head fly catcher, not very big but very bright and pretty.  He was my mum’s favourite of the day,    We saw a Marsh Wren, I think that’s what he was, long legs with long toes which let him walk on the long bent over grass in the water, he looked like he was walking on water.  Long beak, I thought he was an Egret.  But then we did see an Egret, too pretty, two of them, all white with long yellow leg, one of them had a wonky leg that hung down a bit when he was flying away.  

Jaxon:  And Charley, don’t forget the white winged dove, and another kind of dove and the mocking bird, and the little bright yellow tree bird that came when Tom played the bird sound on his phone.  Oh and that sparrow with the black bits on his head around his eyes, oh Charley and the one with the brown kinda spots on his tummy, what was he called?

Charley; oh yeah and the house that had the wood peckers hole on the pole we saw on the way to the ladies house with the humming bird feeders. That was funny, naughty wood pecker.    So over at this ladies house she had bird feeders.  One bird actually stopped to drink and when he turned we saw his bright purple cheek feathers.  

Jaxon: and the other one was drinking while flying and his cheek feathers were orange and the other ones were shiny green.

Charley: then we went to a bird talk for kids.  My dad met this man at Walmart who is an Ornithologist from BC who lives in Bjaja too, and he invited Jaxon & I to a talk he was doing at his house.  He wanted to talk to us about how important it is to look after birds when we grow up, because, he said the grown ups today are making a mess of the earth and we need to protect the birds before they all get extinct.  

We rode our bikes from the camp ground in La Ventana to Dr Bird’s house, he has the best name.  It was a long way with the wind blowing dust into my face.  I was riding along, minding my own business when a giant bony old cow decided to cross the road in front of me!  

We rode a really long way until the road ended and turned to sand, and made the tires sink in.  Then a lady cam along with more kids going to the talk so my mum put us in her truck, a strangers truck and we got a ride up to the house which was up a long hill and me and Jaxon were exhausted.  

Mum & dad had to walk up the rest of the way pushing our bikes.  There were 5 ofter kids there including Summer from Nitinat, it was really nice to see her.  Dr Bird talked to us all about birds, mum I didn’t know that some have stick spit like the Canada Jay, who sticks his food to the trees so that it doesn’t get covered in snow.   And then we got to look at some in his back yard thru this thing on a tripod that was just like a telescope but for looking at birds not stars.  I totally loved it and asked if I could come back again, but they are leaving soon to go back to Vancouver.  Then the lady gave my brother, mum & I a ride home in her truck so we didn’t have to ride.

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