I love rocks too. I generally bring some back with me whenever i travel.SGC your pictures are beautiful. What a wonderful place to vacation. I'm a big rock hound so I would be in hog heaven there.
We have an amazing array of birds here. Everything from tiny hummers and Jenny wrens to bald eagles. I think my favorite time of the year is May/June here when all the song birds are singing their brains out in the early morning. Since there are so many farm ponds and lakes we have a lot of aquatic birds, ducks, heron, egrets etc. Since we are about an hour from the Mississippi River we get eagles moving inland in the winter looking for food and I think I read where there are 4 active eagle nests in our county so some stick around to breed. They don't cause nearly the problems that the hawks cause though as far as chickens are concerned. There are also a large number of vultures to be found.