Bird watching and Mind

Two fridays ago, I had gone for an early and quick bird watching. The attention grabber that day was an Osprey. That capital O is a new development. They have become the pronouns for me now. Osprey thrilled us with his tour. Later he rested on a tree. As we scanned to the left, there was a hunk of a bird on a dead tree. I dismissed it as the same bird. Later when a cowatcher found it, she wondered how could anyone miss it and I realised how mindlessly I snubbed the Red tailed hawk as Osprey, clearly when osprey has such contrasting black and white in it. As I followed a phoebe from a tree to a bank, I was surprised to call it and wondered how does our memory work and when are we sure of the bird.
Last sunday sitting in a class with glass windows, we looked out to find a bird. After looking at its ID, I wondered if it was a shrike but didnt say it loud as I thought the others around would have called it if it was that. It is ironic that few weeks ago, it was the same marks that I carried home and checked it out in the bird book that it was a shrike.