Giant Bird Sees a Ghost?

The other night, I was at the computer while Giant Bird sat on the back of the chair with one leg up, kind of drifting in and out of sleep in what we call "Droopy Parrot Eyes" mode. All of a sudden, he snapped awake, put his crest up, stared at a point slightly over the computer screen, and cut loose with two alarm calls--the serious kind he makes when he's hurt or there is a car coming toward us or something. I looked, and there wasn't anything there. No moths or flies or anything. Maybe he had a nightmare about hawks?

In other news, no mantises yet. I put in another ootheca, maybe if the first one was non-viable, this one will hatch. I have an irrational compulsion lately to hatch eggs and plant seeds, even though neither eggs nor seeds seem to be doing well.

I wish there were a way for me to make a living hatching eggs and feeding baby birds.