It Came From The Sky

There I was minding my own business, taking pictures of this field and the hills in the distance. I looked for an opening in the thickly placed trees and shrubs so I could get a good picture of those hills. This time of year it gets harder to find that opening on this particular trail at Heritage Park, where I chose to hike today.

I thought I saw a few birds flying in the distance, so all of my attention was focused far away. I was thinking what a potentially beautiful scene I'd be able to share. The only problem was that the Sun wasn't quite in the right position this time of day. I was lost in these thoughts.

That's when it came right at me, from out of the sky!

It was a bird that I thought looked like a small duck. It was almost as big, but lighter in color than most. I couldn't believe what was happening! It landed at the edge of the trail right in front of me! It landed so hard that I thought maybe it had somehow fallen!

My camera was zoomed out while I was trying to see the distant birds, and in my panic I couldn't get it to zoom back in. I had to get a decent picture of this bird! The pictures I tried to get were all too close and very blurry. Meanwhile, this false duck was crawling around in the high grass in the strangest way!

The bird didn't exactly appear to be injured as I continued to watch, but this bird was no duck at all. There was something different about it. Something I'd never seen before. It appeared to be trying it's best to burrow down under the old matted grass and weeds. I never did get a good picture while watching it act so crazily.

It soon found it's way under all of those weeds and was out of sight. I thought about poking around there with a stick, until I remembered that it wouldn't be a very nice thing to do. I never touch any wildlife, or disturb it at all, if I can help it. All I had left were these blurry pictures, but what was this bird?

After I got home, I did a little research. It was hard to see, but the pictures told me just enough. The identity of this bird is an American Woodcock. If you want a better look you can click on the name to go to a very useful place to find out a lot of good information about this bird. I just hope one day I'll get some better pictures!

Nature Center Magazine today has another Free Wallpaper for you this week. This one is an excellent photo of a black swallowtail butterfly. It was contributed by Steve of Out On The Prairie. Go there to see the photo and to get the links to more of Steve's excellent work.