Where Shall We Walk Today?

This morning my Boyfriend and I headed for the "Birds of Prey" sanctuary. This is a place kind of close to my house that cares for injured or sick raptors - birds with talons. These are owls, eagles, hawks, ospreys, kites, etc.

About seven years ago I got up one morning and looked out my front door to see a tiny fury rectangle huddled against the base of a tree. I wouldn't have known what it was except for two eyes as big as quarters staring back at me. A baby owl had fallen out of a great Live Oak.

I called "Birds of Prey." A woman arrived, scooped him up and put him in her pocket. I later learned that happens a lot.

Anyways, we had a great time walking through the grounds, looking at these magnificent birds, many close to extinction.

They're at the top of the food chain in their world so we can learn a lot from them since we're supposedly at the top of our food chain.

We were also reminded of the importance of wet lands in Florida. Why? Wet lands are the kidneys of Florida, filtering waste from our waters. I hope Florida doesn't ever have to go on dialysis.

If or when the birds recover enough they're released back into the wild. We didn't see that happening this morning but we did see a little video narrated by Ed Begley, Jr. (one of our best tree huggers) showing birds being released. They were thrown in to air by human beings. Quite moving.

We saw a little old owl that had been imprinted so he could never be released. But he looked happy.

I'm going to pretend that was my owl - the one that fell out of my tree.