Last summer was our "summer of the owls". I have only seen them once this summer. No matter, there are plenty of other fellows out there to hear! . Here is a family in an ash tree right outside our back door. For once these robins have built up high enough to keep themselves out of trouble.: 
Then, this hawk was nesting above a tennis court in Western Springs. A pretty comfy out of the way spot. (and hard to photograph, too with my little lens) 
I was contemplating the 'ordinariness' of birds in our lives this morning on our walk. For the most part, we hardly even notice that they're around. (other than to remark on the odd occasion about how lovely they are) Lucky ones of us who have trained our ears early to recognize the most common songs. Remarkable if someone knows several dozen by their song(or hundreds as in the case of friend Mark) But learning to identify a bird by its song is easily done when we just train ourselves to hear the variety. Much the same when learning to identify God's voice in our lives. We need training, the earlier the better. Then there's not such difficulty in picking Him out among the loud voices that surround us so often. Like the Robin with several variations of his song, So is God. But it's not impossible to know and understand that voice!
