The nursery is full. Some of the babies are having to sleep in the street. Others are being left to fend for themselves. There have been casualties. Careless drivers have simply run over some of the little babies and left their bodies lying flattened on the blacktop. No! Not at the church! Not at the Rockport Hospital. We don't have one. It's happening at the bird nursery - the rookery if you please.
If you haven't seen this annual phenomenon take a drive on Rockport Beach. Circle to the far end and use binoculars to gaze over on "bird island". Between these two places, surrounded by ski-doos and all shapes and sizes of boats, is an incredible nursery of water birds. There are baby gulls, terns, reddish egrets, tri-colored herons, black skimmers, great blue herons, roseate spoonbills, and I am leaving out others. Chicks are everywhere; their parents screaming at them to watch out for the cars. The babies walk or run about with their mouths open, just hoping a parent will regurgitate them some food. One can drive through this melee and see the birds up close. It won't be for long. A few have already made it to the water and are beginning to find food. Most, however, are still waiting on parental care. If you live near Rockport you gotta' see this.
I had a great laugh yesterday at lunch. It was covered dish at Taft. Roylene Hunt had read my BLOG about the sooty tern on Rockport Beach, displaced from relatives. She had misread the name, however, and called it a SNOOTY tern! "No, Roylene, I wouldn't be encouraging folks to go see a snooty tern! They see enough people like that!" Have a great week. "Hi, Mike"
