[insert evil laughter]

When I was a sophomore in college, I took one of my favoritest classes ever. (Do note the use of the qualifier 'one'. I do have lots of favoritest classes. You could _almost_ say all but chemistry class fall into that category. But I digress.)

This class was called 'Appreciation of Nature'. It met once a week for several hours late Mondau afternoons. The lecture topics varied between bats to ants to fish to
hibernating bears. Our main assignment was to spot at least 75 different birds and record them.

I was skeptical this could happen, especially as it was winter. In Utah! Didn't all birds fly south for the winter? But before we were left to our own devices, we all went on a bird watching field trip. Egrets. Redwinged blackbirds. Finches. Sparrows! My only problem was I was using old opera glasses which come to find out were not quit powerful enough to see the detail described.

I remember being at the Logan temple parking lot, and seeing a Cedar waxwing in a the trees. The colors on the wing really do like drops of wax!

Later, on my mission in Florida, as my companion and I rode the bus, I happened to look out the window, and in the ditch I saw a pair of roseated spoonbills! That was cool. Really cool.

I even joined the Piedmont Bird club in NC. Part to beef up my instate tuition application, but mostly because I find birds fascinating. The one and only club meeting I was able to attend was a demonstration of the melodic nature of bird sings. I found it absolutely fascinating to witness how music and birds collided.

All this is to explain why I have the Audobon app on my super smart phone. I don't use it quite as much as I'd like, so last night while trying unsuccessfully to sleep, I started playing with it. A feature of the app is the inclusion of many examples of bird songs. I looked up cedar waxwing, and played it.

Max the Cat, who had been sleeping unawares, quickly perked up his head and looked directly at me and the phone, as the source of this noise. I may or may not have waited till he was asleep again to play more bird songs. hee hee.

Just now I was playing the song of a wren and he stalked up to me, nosing at the phone, hoping for a wee wren to pounce on. Alas. He has to content himself with the birdies out the window. Just now a sparrow came to the window well, probably just to taunt the kitty. Well, at least that's what I'd be doing if I were a sparrow. I probably wouldn't live long, either.