[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]
Posted by Hawker on 00:46:53 08/23/07
During my slow stroll on the Wachodahatchee boardwalk Sunday I paused to glass an immature moorhen. I could hear a plaintive call like the squeal of a small child in distress coming from behind me. Then a green heron jumped into my binocular's view with a leopard frog grasped at its waist by heron's strong bill. The heron hunched up, loosening its feathers in preparation in downing its rather large and as of yet unharmed meal. As the heron was contemplating on how to handle this lively windfall, a one foot long alligator came slithering through the duckweed in great haste, bent on seizing the frog for itself. The heron simply walked along the shore line easily outdistancing the gator's progress. The two adversaries were about a yard apart when the diminutive gator played its desperate gamble. It jumped completely free of the water, jaws agape in the vain attempt to seize fortune from the bill of the heron. The overreaching reptile's ambition and meager skills were soon overcome by the permanency of gravity, and the laws of aerodynamics. The gator s trajectory was one of more altitude and than advancement and it crashed into the mud well short of its goal. The heron had a respite and began to maneuver the frog into position for a head first swallow, when the slippery and lucky amphibian flopped from the heron s grasp and plunged to freedom in the black and mudded water.
This episode brought to mind the Benjamin Franklin quote Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote."
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]