Today was such a trip! On my way to work I saw a coyote run across the hi-way in front of me, then it crossed the ditch and jumped the fence. You should've seen it jump...it was so smooth and easy...so graceful. -like those wolves on those wolf documentaries! Then, like a half mile later, there was this pheasant rooster totally strutting his stuff on top of a big rock. After another short distance, there was a big, fluffy dog playing with something I couldn't see and he was wagging his ginormous tail like a madman. --but wait, there's more! As if that wasn't enough...tonight we were at home and my wife asked me what kind of bird was making this obnoxious noise. I knew I'd heard it before and just guessed it was a starling. So I got curious and started scanning the big maple in the back yard, and suddenly the bird flew out of the tree and perched on my electric line to my house. You know what kind of bird it was? It was my all-time-fave bird in all of God's creation: the KINGFISHER! It was in MY yard...on MY wire! I was just freaking out. I've never seen one perched anywhere other than over water! My wife was on the phone and hung up on whomever after shouting "it's a kingfisher!" into the poor person's ear. My entire family shared my excitement. They care about me enough to care about my (silly, old) favorite bird. What a family! What a moment -with us all standing like statues depicting 'awe' in our back window! -kmf