Guess what we saw!!!

A bird hit our window today while we were reading together. (See, there's another reason to hs--it keeps you sitting in one spot for long enough to see interesting stuff, LOL!) Anyway, it was a medium-sized reddish-brown and white bird with a white head. Didn't quite look like a hawk. After perusing the birdbook, I decided that it was a bird we don't usually see in our parts. In fact, if this is a hint at all, it's the Alaska State Bird! It was a willow ptarmigan in the midst of its fall moult, hence the brown/white of the bird but the white head. Nothing else in the birdbook even came close to matching! There are more photos here. This bird normally lives much farther north, in the arctic tundra areas, and summers into northern Canada. It is occasionally seen in the US, in North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, and Maine.

Oh, and did it hurt itself when it hit our window? Not too badly, I'm guessing! It flew across the yard and landed on my parents' porch roof, where it sat for a minute, then it flew back toward our house. I thought it was going to give that window a second try, but it veered at the last second and flew on past the house.