For the Birds

To tell you the truth, I've never really paid too much attention to the critters.  Living in the urban Northeast, birds were just part of the landscape: pigeons, doves, orioles, bluejays and the occasional cardinal.  But it's different in coastal Florida.  For one thing, birds are everywhere.  And they're big (relatively speaking).

We live on a lake so everyday I see ibis, egrets, ducks, geese and the homely turkey-duck (Yarn Widower calls them "turduckens").  They're noisy but pleasant neighbors.  A few days ago, we had a special visitor: a roseate spoonbill.

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Nature/Birds/Waders/index.html

I'd never seen a pink bird before and I was enthralled.  In my own backyard no less!  Our showy guest flew away before I could get out the zoom lens for my camera - birds can be notoriously difficult photo models.  Plus given the choice of seeing with one's own eye versus through a camera lens, I'll take the former every time.

But I particularly like the eye of the late graphic artist Charley Harper:

http://www.circlecityframes.com/Description%20Pages/ft_roseate.html