Jennifer loves birds. And she measures the success of a road trip, at least partly, in terms of how many kinds of birds she spots along the way. So her last trip to Florida was a big success. She saw ibises, egrets, herons, flamingos, pelicans, and who knows what else. One day she counted seventeen species of birds during a stop-off at a reptile farm.
Now, that might not seem so remarkable to me if it weren't that I'm from Florida. And, to be honest, I didn't identify seventeen types of birds in all the years I lived there.
So Jennifer opened my eyes to something I'd never appreciated about my home state: its resplendent array of tropical birds. Parrots aflame with golds/greens/purples/reds/blues. Sea birds that dive and soar and ride the wind. Ospreys that stand like sentinels on top of beach-side telephone poles. Mockingbirds that fill the soft night air with song.
