It’s okay to be a little cuckoo…

Yesterday I came upon a small group of smooth-billed ani in the water treatment field. Every few minutes one or two would take flight in search of whatever smooth-billed ani search for, most likely tasty insects to munch. They live in social groups numbering from 5 to 7 mating pairs and lay their eggs all in one communal nest. Then they take turns incubating the eggs and they take turns on lookout duty, protecting the nest and young from predators. These birds are declining in numbers in Florida and flourishing in other places in the Caribbean. They seem to be doing okay here on Andros. They are related to the cuckoo but if you ask me they have a pretty good system going. They don’t seem cuckoo at all.

Then my mind wandered to the Florida burrowing owl. These little owls live mostly on the ground and build their nests in sandy burrows in the prairie like conditions found in Florida resulting from draining the wetlands and clearing the forests for construction of human habitats and farmland. They have long legs (unusual in owls) so they can stand tall and be on the lookout for predators. Maybe they are the much smaller cousins of the Chickcharney, a long unseen resident legend that some folks think were really Bahamian burrowing barn owls that once populated Andros Island but are now extinct (unless you've seen a Chickcharney). The Bahamian barn owls were flightless and up to 3 feet in height and I can see how the sandy soil here was perfect for their burrows.

From today’s epistle you must be thinking this blogger’s mind has taken flight like I have to escape the winter chill in St. Marys but that obviously proves I’m only a little cuckoo. I know when to come in out of the cold.