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Posted by Paul on 04:32:24 06/21/05
In Reply to: Yellowstone Trip Report--Off Topic posted by Felipe G.
Poor Felipe, he has sipped from the cup of Bacchus and tasted the nectar of the gods. Now there is no turning back to the mundane and ordinary, the pedestrian, and banal. We have lost this good friend to the mountains and streams where the "cataracts spill and the mountain birds trill." He has seen the 'Stone walked the Lamar and probably even shopped the metropolitan complex of SilverGate. No hope.
But you did have a coconut tree in your slide show!
And back on topic: I had a delightful evening experience viewing mom and pop screech owl with their brood of three young at Hoechoka Hammock. How peaceful walking through the hammock with light rain falling but broken by the canopy of paradise tree, ironwood, cabbage palms, and ancient cypress. The little ones were practicing their "screech calls" but so faint as to be barely audible. In this land stewardship area the birds have come to be at peace and approaching them at a distance of 10 feet was acceptable to all. I have seen many a bird of strange and exotic nature in native and foreign lands but there is something about this little owl that is bewitching. We communed for several minutes before an anole drew them away. How fickle their attention. It was an evening delight worth the mosquito bites. This area, (Sawgrass and University) now features a killdeer incubating four eggs and taking a daily pounding of rain. Remarkable how she picked an area that remains about two inches above flood level in the field. Also featured at this site is a nesting red-bellied woodpecker and a nesting "Southern" Flicker (take that you Yankees). In one of the peculiarities of the year the woodpeckers are all nesting at three feet from the ground this year. Some of the TAS-ographers have asked if we can't move the nests to five feet to accomodate ease of picture taking. Well, okay. Next year we will adjust slightly.
Nighthawks ply their trade (so few of them and so many mosquitos) but their nest fell to the ravages of a 'possum.
Baby brown thrashers are about together with mockingbirds (well, alright, northern mockingbirds). Northern cardinals nested quite early and the young are showing independance. The mourning dove also had a good nesting year and the numbers are increasing. White-winged doves are down in numbers and pigeons are regrettably increasing in numbers. Where are the hawks when you need them? Pileated woodpeckers are both seen and heard at early morning. Sorry, no ivory-billed here.
It is hot, and buggy, and muggy, but walking the Florida woods does have its pleasures "in season" and after the winter and spring who can complain. A glass of ice tea, an easy chair, sit back and listen to the summer time concert of keening mourning dove in the concert of cicadias.
But then, Yellowstone does have its allure. Right Felipe?
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