i've seen baby owls, turkeys, just about every other bird except GBH and egrets both of which are year round residents between my pond and the ranchpond. we also have black crowned night heron, but they're more rare.
your story reminds me of our clowns. last night my wife and I watched two adult egrets compete for precious branch roosting space with our resident turkey flock. we have about 20 birds (turkeys) that come in every night, walk road to our garage (we live on a ledge) and one by one clumsily fly up into our pines. they lose feathers, bat against small branches, break branches, its always a cliffhanger to see if they make it or not. only last night they had competition, was first time egrets have come so close to house to roost, the battle for this one branch went on about 10 minutes til the egrets were way out on end......though they all ended up spending night happily ever after.
