Birding in Creepy Groves

Seeing birds can take us to some freaky levels.  Even shady or dark areas, or in other words, fenced in groves of large trees.  This particular grove probably has it's share of ghosts, zombies, and maybe even a bigfoot or two.  I would hate to be caught in the branches at the strike of midnight, well, if that stuff is true.  Whether it is or isn't, I would hate to find out the wrong way.  So these groves full of a creepy and dark mix of clumped pine, pistachio, palm, and many more look very creepy on the outside, but seem to be a creepy-sort-of peaceful on the inside.  It almost feels as if the grove is in it's own little world, and the rest of the world is far away and way outside, although it is still so close.  A few of my birding buddies Justin, Magill,  and I hopped the fences to see what birds or creatures were lingering inside.

As we started creeping through the atmosphere of the creepiest, something caught my eye on the ground.  Some sort of weird looking creature.  When I got my bins on it, I was relieved to see that it was just a bird.

The Great Horned Owl caught me by surprise.  In my birding days, I have never seen one on the ground like this, sleeping in the day time hours.  I walked up to the owl, and he didn't open his eyes until I got within 10 feet of him.  He lazily slipped his eyes open and flew away even more lazily to a low perch a little further in the grove.  I thought of the place being very weird after that happened.  Perhaps the owl sees way more creepy things in this grove than goofy birders.  I didn't really want to think about those possibilities while I was in the tree clumps.  And I don't think my birding buddies Justin and Magill did either.  If I set aside the creepy creatures, maybe the Great Horned Owl is the warden or master of this grove.

There were a lot of fruit bearing trees in the grove, with plenty of fruit to keep birds happy.  When cheery songsters started to show up in abundance, the grove didn't seem so spooky after all.  

As we all know, the Hermit Thrush has one of North Americas best and prettiest birding sounds.  But sometimes it also sings in dark forests when there is nothing else around.  Does the Hermit Thrush know some stuff too, perhaps, that we don't?  Maybe a creepy thing or two?  Is his song just a cover up?

Justin then spied the bird he found at one time, when he came in the grove.  A cool one too.  It's quite rare in Arizona, and it's pretty cat-like.

It blended in perfectly with the surrounding darkness, and it was very secretive, but every once-in-awhile, it would reveal itself well.  The Gray Catbird is a great bird.

After watching the Catbird, we slowly made our way out of the grove.  This secret place is definitely supposed to be a secret.  I think Justin is the only one with the key to this grove, and he is required to be present for access.  This place almost reminds me of the birding Chronicles of Narnia, perhaps Justin should be called Edmund the Birder.  It seems like nothing changes when you go in or go out of it, just like NARNIA.  But really, if your reading this and think I'm being serious, don't hold your breath anymore.  Long story short, there's a grove, and we went in, and there are some birds in it.   Reality sucks!