Hoppy Bird 02/25/19

Markham County Park, Sunrise, Florida

 . . . I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ~  Ephesians 4:1b-3

We’ve adopted a bird.  We named him Hoppy.  He’s a Northern Mockingbird. In the 1800’s people took nestlings or trapped adults and sold them in the big cities. In fact, in 1828, extraordinary singers could fetch as much as $50. (that’s $1,263 today!) These birds continue to add new sounds to their repertoires throughout their lives. A male may learn around 200 songs in his lifetime! The oldest on record was at least 14 years, 10 months when it was found in Texas.

Anyway, our Hoppy has a broken wing, so he doesn’t fly, but he does hop around the ground and up into the tops of the trees around us.  And he’s so fast, it’s all we can do to even begin to capture him on camera!  This is what we caught today, but we’ll keep trying for a better one.

We felt sorry for him, so we tore up a bread heal and I put out a handful of seeds I had in my spice cupboard – fennel, sesame and caraway.  He gobbled up the bread, but ignored the seeds.  Typical.  Who wants the healthy stuff when junk food’s available . . . .

We left around 8:00am this morning to ride around the Everglades.  But Blaine informed me that although this is the Everglades, it is NOT the National Park.  ☹  It’s roughly 80 miles around. 

We didn’t do that.

First of all, we discovered it’s gravel, although there was a narrow strip along the left side that was pretty smooth.

Second, after about 3 miles, we’d seen enough.  And it was starting to get really warm.

Third, we’d been biking into a headwind the entire way and it was getting tiring.

It just wasn’t fun anymore.  So we turned around.

We’d’ve never made it the 80 miles anyway.  😊

Instead, after pausing for a snack at the butterfly garden in Markham, we took some different asphalt paths inside Markham Park.  It was much more enjoyable.  😊

After lunch, on a whim, we took off for Ft. Lauderdale beach!

It was a perfect day!  The temperature was a bit cooler – 83, and the water temperature was warm – 79, so we could walk in the surf.

We spotted several kitesurfers down the beach, so we walked out to watch them.  It seemed like the longer we walked, the further away they were!  We finally caught up to a couple.  So fun to watch them sail along the top of the water, even lifting 10-20 feet into the air!  There were some who seemed to be just trying it out, and their spotters were on the beach.  They did not look like they were having fun.  We thought they should’ve waited for a less windy day to learn.

Traffic was horrible on the way back home!  But we arrived safely and only 20 minutes later than we should have.  We both breathed a sigh of relief!