FLORIDA POND-SHORE RECORD, COMPONENT 1

Dr. James J. S. Johnson

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” I will certainly open up rivers in high locations, and also water fountains in the middle of the valleys: I will certainly make the wild a fish pond of water, and also the completely dry land springtimes of water.”

.( Isaiah 41:18)(* )Wow! What an early morning birdwatching in St. Petersburg, Florida, at the residence of Pastor Bob and also Marcia Webel, great Christian buddies (of mine) because the very early A.D. 1970s (and also friends of my partner, years later on). On the early morning of Monday, January 16

th ^{(A.D. 2023) we beinged in patio chair inside the yard that surrounds a near-the-bay fish pond (i.e., what Floridians call a “lake”), consuming our coffee (and also consuming toasted rye bread), delighting in the advantage of observing the complying with birds:} HAIRLESS EAGLE (Wikipedia photo)

Hairless Eagle. When a Hairless Eagle fly to the leading branches of a pond-shore tree the smaller sized birds left, accepting the eagle’s raptor track record. All American patriots understand the Hairless Eagle, our nationwide bird. The heads and also necks (of both male grownups and also women grownups) are covered with brilliant white plumes, providing it the look of being “hairless” (from a range).

These hefty hawk-like raptors enjoy to consume fish, so it is not unexpected to see them at and also near seasides, lakeshores, estuarial bays and also shores, and also comparable coastlines where fish are conveniently offered. [See John Bull & John Farrand, Jr., NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS:  EASTERN REGION, revised edition (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), pages 321-322 & 423-424.][See Roger Tory Peterson, PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA, 5^th edition (Boston, MA: HarperCollins, 2020), page 178.] WHITE IBIS (Wikipedia photo)

White Ibis. Wild, these happy-to-eat-bread birds are visibly vibrant in their determination to strategy human beings that feed them bread crumbs. (In some Florida pond-shore park contexts they will essentially consume bread tidbits from human hands.) White Ibises are a long-legged chicken-sized waterfowl, nearly all white (yet has black under-edging on its wings), with a lengthy decurved (i.e., downward-curved) expense that is red (vermillion-orange/coral-red) in shade. These wading birds appreciate consuming pests that populate pond-shore waters, such as crayfish, tiny fishes, and also marine pests.

These white waterfowl are understood to intermix with Scarlet Ibis. [See John Bull & John Farrand, Jr., NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS:  EASTERN REGION, revised edition (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), pages 12 & 376.] COMMON GRACKLE (Wikipedia photo)[See Eugene M. McCarthy,  HANDBOOK OF AVIAN HYBRIDS OF THE WORLD (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006), page 192.]

Typical Grackle. I was initially motivated by a Great-tailed Grackle[See John Bull & John Farrand, Jr., NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS:  EASTERN REGION, revised edition (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), pages 479 & 735.] (at a pond-shore in Denton Region, Texas) to create “Of Grackles and also Appreciation”, in the July AD2012 concern of ACTS & & DETAILS (published at

www.icr.org/article/grackles-gratitude

), the grackles that I saw in St. Petersburg, in the yard by the pond-shore, were Typical Grackles (ranges of which consist of “Purple Grackle” and also “Florida Grackle”). Their glossy-black rainbowlike quill sparkles in the sunshine, like a kaleidoscope of amassing flickers of indigo, deep purple, peacock blue, twelve o’clock at night blue, dark bronze-brown, and also emerald environment-friendly.

Various other birds that we (i.e., Pastor Bob Webel and also I, while our other halves talked inside the Webels’ home) observed that early morning, at or near the pond-shore, consisted of Great White Egret, Great Blue Heron, Double-crested Cormorant, Mockingbird, Grieving Dove, Blue Jay, Snowy Egret, Common Moorhen, Anhinga, Tufted Titmouse (on a tree near the pond-shore), Limpkin (foraging near a team of ibises), Red-bellied Woodpecker (on oak branches by the pond-shore), plus later on 3 Muscovy Ducks were seen swaying around on the turf of a next-door neighbor’s front-yard. Birds, a spirited (and also really big) River Otter loosened up on the contrary coast of the fish pond, while numerous Eastern Grey Squirrels rushed below and also there on the ground and also on the trunk and also branches of close-by trees.

However the information of those various other shoreline-visiting birds need to wait for future blogposts (D.v.), due to the fact that this is virtually completed. On The Other Hand, what an advantage it is to observe– close-up– God’s winged marvels, consisting of those seen last Monday. .

” Commend the Lord from the planet, … monsters, and also all livestock; sneaking points, and also flying chicken