Awakened at 6AM by a rather aggressive woodpecker who sounded like a jackhammer outside the bedroom window, I went outside to let him know how unhappy I was and was surprised to discover that he was a very big bird. He flapped away but minutes later it sounded like he got into a quarrel with another bird which ended with one of them crashing into the roof.
Then crows in the trees, one yelling, one whining, had a noisy exchange. I started to wonder if there was some movement afoot. Things are generally so peaceful. This felt ugly and violent and I realized that only because of my size do I think of these creatures as harmless.
A little while later, barn swallows did some kind of a performance flying back and forth very close to the house so I could see their undersides.
Generally my relationship with birds is in listening to their songs which is a favorite part of my life in the countryside. But only in Audubon prints or a rare photograph do I feel inspired by the visual beauty of a bird. How I wished I'd had my phone at the ready so I could have caught at least a picture if not a whole video. Here's something from Google Image which comes closer than anything else I could find to give you an idea of what I saw. It made my day.
photo by Lillian Stokes, 2012