Bird Brained and Duck Dynasty

Sparky is definitely getting more bird brained in her golden years. Forgetting stuff right and left, losing keys and wallet on a regular basis (in the house usually), difficulty remembering occasions in the past year that she SHOULD remember, enough that she consults Alzheimer's checklists on a regular basis, lol. So far, fairly normal aging of the brain, she surmises. Eldy is not alarmed yet, older sis is not alarmed, and friends have not broached the subject yet, so guess Sparky is still on track for navigating her way through life each day. Heck, she can still navigate to Michael's and Hobby Lobby without help (although she DOES have instructions on how to get to Hobby Lobby in her phone in case she forgets), so things are ok....

Speaking of being a bird brain, Sparky has birds on the brain at the moment. She is enjoying Florida birds more and more, and focused on taking photos of them. Today we spotted a FLOCK of about 20 wood storks, behind a shopping plaza in a lagoon area.  WOW! TWENTY woodstorks...they've been scarce lately...and scarce in general, because they are an endangered species. They must be making a comeback because the National Fish and Wildlife agency is thinking about reclassifying them as "threatened", a step down from being endangered...Sparky ran home to get her camera, hopped on her bike and boogied back to the back of the shopping center, where there's a little marsh ecosystem tucked behind the center. It attracts lots of birds, and today, it was the wood stork convention!

Wood storks used to be called a wood ibis...They have similarly curved bills like the little white ibis that are all over the place here in Florida.The wood storks look like turkeys or vultures a little bit. Their heads are blackish and bald like the vulture's. They have a BIG wingspan with big black feathers that you can see when they fly. The wingspan is anywhere from 5-6 feet across!

You can see the relationship between man's flight inventions and the streamlined birds, can't you? What aerodynamics!

Sparky took lots of shots, and had to stay a fair distance away because the birds were wary....

"Come any closer and I'll bite!"

Sparky just thinks these are really cool birds....Here's one in the grass....

And a couple mirroring each other....

A pair in the sun...

"Maybe she won't notice me if I hide behind Agnes."

There were a pair of cool ducks there...These are black bellied whistler ducks, a biologist friend says...Cool! Never heard of those!

Saw these same species of duck in a little pond on the Legacy bike trail a few days later...A mom and dad pair with four little ones who were popping up and down like little bobber corks for a good twenty minutes practicing their diving skills. Sarasota's own duck dynasty!  Each time one little duckling went down, the other three went immediately in succession right after each other--PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! The water churned a little bit, then POP! POP! POP! up they came, one right after the other. It was fun to watch!

Duck diving....

A wonderful part of a morning spent watching and photographing nature right across the street, well right across highway 70 from us.

                                                                           The end.....  :-)