June 3rd, 2015: Shrunken Dinosaur
 

The baby Heron looks like something from Jurassic Park.

http://cellar.org/2015/CF8zuuLVAAApexD.jpg

link

Current thinking is it may BE a dinosaur, descended from some of the tiny species that survived the mass extinction alongside proto-mammals. And there have been hatchling theropods (the group including all the bipedal carnivores) found fossilized with obvious down feathers in a halo around them.

To prepare:
1. Make SURE it's dead (it's a heron of some kind and they go for the eyes)
2. Carefully sear off pinfeathers with a blowtorch for that extra-special "kill it with fire" zing.
3. Cook carefully--there's a fine line between underdone and shoe leather with the little ones.
4. Spice to taste, keeping in mind that it's probably going to taste like fish due to its diet.

Baby birds are freaky looking.

I noticed that certainly with members of the corvid family, they are attracted to food by sight, especially movement.
A crow will always go for food it sees thrown, rather than food already on the ground, even if it means having to squabble with another bird for it.

Although I seem to remember that the whole "vision is based on movement" came from Jurassic Park and was debunked.
Still, it made me smile to think I was feeding mini-dinosaurs.