Library Story Time - Texas Style!

When this summer began, I decided to try to take Sophie to the story time hours at the libraries near us as often as I could.  We went to the ones at our library right here in town a couple of times, but once we made it to the nearby town for their story time.  We arrived after it had begun and I did not look up to see what it was about that day.  Boy was I in for a surprise! 

Once we walked in and sat down, I looked at the front of the room to find not a person reading a story very animated-like as I would expect.  Nope.  I found an older man standing there next to a bird telling us everything he could in the allotted time frame about this bird.  You see, this was no ordinary pet bird such as a parrot or cockatoo (which we did see at another story time session, by the way).  This bird was in fact a buzzard, or some would call it a vulture.  He referred to it both ways, but I prefer buzzard.  I literally mean a dirty, annoying, disgusting, flesh-eating, road-kill snacking buzzard! 

Oscar the buzzard

At least, that's how I used to think of them.  This was a very interesting hour!  I learned a lot about these birds, much more than I ever knew or really cared to.  They are interesting, though.  Did you know that the reason they don't have feathers on their head is to help prevent infections from getting pieces of dead animals on their heads when they eat? No feathers allows them to cleanly reach in and back out without coming up with anything on them.  Or how about them needing their tail feathers to keep warm?  Maybe you did know that, but I bet you didn't know that they defecate on their legs, which coats their legs and acts as protection against diseases when they land on an animal, in case it happens to have a disease?  (I told you I learned more than I wanted to know, and now you have as well.)  Here's one more: did you know that they prefer their food 1.5 days old?  Yeah, me neither. 

The guy who was speaking owned this bird and had had her for 44 years.  He said the average age of a buzzard is about 50 years.  Crazy!  If you want to learn about Oscar (and why she's called Oscar), read this article written about her, including her movie and professional career! 

Not long before his time was up, the speaker brought out two other animals, which happen to be the designated small mammal of Texas: armadillos!  One was full grown and one was a baby still.  We didn't learn as much about them, but it was interesting to see it up close.  He allowed us to see up close one of them sniffing out and eating some bugs he had caught before coming. 

Adult armadillo is closest to the camera

Closer picture of the baby armadillo

The armadillos, Sophie, and I

I'm sure I'll never get the opportunity to experience this again, unless this guy speaks again and we're able to make it.  It was quite interesting!  Sophie may not have gotten much out of it, but I sure did.