They're back!

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

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