Mar 19, 2016 22:24
Thursday was St. Patrick's Day. March 17. It was also the day my daughter and her husband got married eight years ago. As I was pondering all this I was looking out my kitchen window and something streaked past my vision. Could it be? Yes it was! A ruby throated hummingbird was feeding on the shrimp plants that surround my kitchen bay windows. Then I remembered. They always come back right after the middle of March.
This afternoon I had another special sighting. I had gone to visit a friend a few miles away and had to run home to pick up something I forgot to take with me. Passing by a large window, a huge bird caught my eye. He was sitting on a high dead branch of the huge live oak on the edge of the marsh. It was easy to see his markings and they were like none I had ever seen before. He was mostly black, the size and shape of a large raptor. His neck and head were white except for a unusual large black tuft on the crown of his head. When I saw him swoop to land on the oak tree, he was carrying something he had caught and while I watch he started to eat it. I grabbed my "Florida's Fabulous Birds" book and opened to "Birds of Prey". And there he was: a crested caracara. Then I read about them and found that they are rare. There is a population on the prairies of central Florida of about 500. If this is truly what I saw, it was a special sighting and I feel blessed.
natural adventures