Exotic Animal Sightings

OK, maybe they're not all exotic, but some pretty interesting animals have been spotted right on our own street. The other day Erin began walking down our street to make a quick trip to the store when what did she see coming toward her on the sidewalk? An old man walking a horse. Yep, a big, saddled horse. Mind you, we do not live in the country somewhere; we live in Amsterdam, the most populous city in the Netherlands. Obviously this is not usual, as proved by another neighbor who said something to Erin in Dutch, but Erin is pretty sure it was something like "What in the world is that?" based on her curious facial expression. Erin just shrugged and laughed along with her.

The past week or so we have been awakened by a quite strange noise, a bird call of some kind we presume. It is a high-pitched, very loud "eeeeeeeeeee-eeeeeeeee" that Erin at first thought sounded like a noise a dinosaur on Jurassic Park would make. John now calls it the "horse-goat" noise. It really is indescribable. (Now is where the "exotic animal" part of the story comes in.) This morning while eating breakfast Erin happened to look out the window and see a bird that looks remarkably like a large green parrot with a ring of red feathers around its neck alight on a tree. She thought this unusual bird could be the culprit of the unusual bird call, but the parrot didn't utter a sound before it flew further down the line of apartments to another tree so Erin still has no verified identification of the "horse-goat" noise.

And of course there's always the heron, though not so unusual in Amsterdam with all the water we have around here. The heron spends each afternoon, from about 4 or 5 p.m. onward, sitting on the exact same light on our street. Eventually Erin will get used to seeing a 3-foot tall bird sitting atop a street light, but for now it still amuses her when she's walking back from the store or the recycling bins.