Here's some good news

[Apex]

In the middle of a Thanksgiving weekend which turned up some unfortunate incidents around the world, here's some good news, if you're a bird person:

An Ibis was spotted hanging upside down 60 feet up in a tree in the county just north of me, it had fishing line in its feet and somehow it all got tangled up in the branches.  Fire crews were able to rescue the bird, which, altho having been up there for maybe 24 hours or so, was OK.

We've had small flocks of these birds in the neighborhood here from time to time, they have somehow found their way into town from their habitat in the Everglades, and scrounge in the grass looking for bugs.  They look really cool walking around yards, most of them are white with black tipped feathers, I've seen them in mine several times, and once was able to get pretty close without disturbing them.

This area was once filled with birds of all kinds; no more, maybe one or two sometimes, the disappearance of pine trees may have had something to do with that, also, no more vacant lots.

So the appearance of the Ibis is a welcome sight, but they don't hang around much.

Long ago I spotted a bald eagle in my backyard, it flew away when I opened the back door, quite a sight at close range.

And then there was the great blue heron that resided by day in one of my pine trees, arriving in the morning, sitting up there meditating, and flying away at dusk.  Did that for a whole year.

12.31.96:  Hundreds of turkey buzzards overhead, flying east to west towards the Everglades.  The passage took about a half hour.