You know I had always heard that spirits could appear as birds, etc. but I wouldn't have believed it seriously until recently. One night I almost got in a car accident, some dude cut me off in the rain on the highway and I slammed my brakes to avoid hitting him.
Anyway I get back to work and it was still dark and this robin flew up and landed on the railing in front of me and just sat there staring at me. It was odd and I ended up taking a picture of it. I told my mom about it and she was like "it was probably Grandpa, going "whatcha doin?" (about the near-accident). I said "if it was Grandpa it would've been one of those vocal birds that remind me of him."
It was a running joke for years before that when there was a noisy naggy-sounding bird nearby that it was him.
Anyway the next night, I heard another bird (sparrow) from the grandparents' bird clock, one I used to call my grandmother and whistle to her when she answered the phone as a joke. She'd go "no, not the ten o'clock bird!"
Anway she's the only one who knew I liked that bird so I realized that must've been her trying to visit me (besides Grandpa knows how to visit me in my dreams). And even if it wasn't, it was still really cool to hear.