STRANGE SIGHTINGS: EXOTIC BIRDS

Next begin the sightings of exotic birds.

Months ago, I was home for a visit standing in the kitchen with my parents when my mom yells, “there’s a stork in our yard!” We crane our necks looking out the window and see nothing. A minute later, something blue/gray in the backyard catches my eye. We bust out the back door and stand still, face to face with a blue heron. The bird is almost as tall as any of us, and after a few moments of eye contact, it flies away. I can almost feel the repercussion of its massive wings flapping away with its bamboo legs in tow.

Then the incidents start happening more frequently.

I try to sleep one morning and all I can hear is banging outside. I think it’s construction, but when I look out the window, I see nothing. About 30 minutes later I realize that the sound is very near. I unlock and unbolt the door in my bedroom connecting to a breezeway to find an exotic bird not two feet away, staring me down. It is about a foot tall with a black ring around its neck. Its wings are yellow, and its head is neon orange. It had been banging back and forth between the screen walls for over an hour. We look at each other in silence for a minute, and then it flies away through the screen door that has been open all along.

Soon after, my twin and I are walking home from class. As we pass a big frat house, I point out a large flock of brown birds in the trees. Just then two vibrant orange-ish red birds pop out. They're tiny things, solid colored with beady black eyes. They fly up on a tree branch and peer down at us as we pass.

A couple weeks later I’m walking in Zilker Park. I’m about to cross Lamar when I see three neon green parakeets playing among a flock of crows. My friend laughs and asks how it is that I always sight those kinds of things.

Then I go to San Antonio for Christmas. My mom is driving somewhere with me and I start to tell her about how among some crows I saw... She turns to me and says, “I saw some parrots too.”