The swallow-tailed kite

As I started this blog I wrote that I will often wonder what it will become (1st entry).   Thus making an honest admission that I didn't know what I was doing.  I didn't have any expectations or a plan, but I did have something to say.  I was curious to see how I would express it. 

For now, my blog has become an commentary on the features within the natural world that I feel have a certain magic.  As with most, if not all, nature writers I hope my contributions inspire a greater reverence toward a deeper stewardship of this beautiful world.

That being said,  the swallow-tailed kite provides the magic of which I speak  in an undeniable fashion.  

I take pictures of the kites everytime I see them in the sky;  Lots of pictures - good ones, bad ones, better ones.  One day while driving I saw a group of about 10 kites working a field together.   Almost startled by them, I quickly pulled a u-turn coming back to an aerial ballet.  Here are some of the images from that 30 minute spellbinding experience. 

They were after a swarm of bugs or something in the grass; swooping about and diving toward the ground.

For me, at this point , spellbound is not an exageration.  The ease at which the kites carve a path through the sky is an amazing ability.  Just a tiny, almost impercebtible, tilt of their adept tail sends them on a significant course alteration - as if by a natural and very real magic.  (where is the video BDay??)

  Amazing, they are -  truly, truly the otters of the sky.

To torque that tail and jet after your quarry -  swoosh!   These maurauders snatch their food on the fly.  Biologists use the term "gleaners" to categorize their feeding habit.  After the snatch  they eat on the fly too.   

The swallow tailed kite -  a truly inspring creature.  Remaining suspended in flight for long periods with no perceptible movement.  Radically changing trajectory as if by commanding the wind to adjust.  So adept, so quiet, so agile within the stillness of their effortless grace.  A person need only stare at them in flight for a few moments be fixated on their grace.  Making self-evident that the affairs of humans are not the sole, central theme of our time here on earth.   Rick Scott can you hear me ?! 

 
   

The crookedwood tree

One of my favorite trees is the crookedwood, Lyonia Ferruginea,  Rusty Lyonia, also sometimes known as stagger bush.  I had to do some research to discover the proper name.  ( I had always wrongly called it devilwood).  My friend Bruce had tried to (helpfully) correct me so I looked it up.

The tree -  is in a word beautifully graceful.  It curves and flows in the most amazing shapes that can only be found in the random rhythms of the natural world.  Images of the tree often confuse the eye.

Crookedwood is at home in the scrub. I took all of the pictures here in the Ocala National Forest which is near my home in Ocala, (FL).  

The literature indicates that the crookedwood tree reaches 10 to 20 feet so this is a full grown tree.

It is the growing habit of this ballet dancer of the forest that fascinates me.  Graceful.  Crookedwood tree trunks are a valued forest product in the fake plant industry.  Trunks are harvested at 4 to 6 feet long then wired up with plastic leaves.   The trunks can't be massed produced so crookedwood cutting has become a resource extraction industry.    Selective cutting probably has minimal ecosystem damage

What forces of nature guide the pattern or the path?  Random?  Functional design?  Who knows?  Again I wonder if it's a little strange that I have a fixation with the lowly lyonia.  If you took a hike with me I am pretty sure I could make you understand.

hummingbirds

I was paddling one beautiful afternoon along the Silver River taking pictures of those cypress knees and I got sidetracked at a special place.  I landed my kayak by a  cypress stand with a field of Cardinal flower  lobelia cardinalis.

Knowing that cardinal flower is a favorite source of nectar for hummingbirds I decided to sit still for awhile.

 

It wasn't long, or maybe it was (I lost track of time)  before I was rewarded with a visit from the little magical birds.  There were several buzzing each other and flitting about from flower to flower in a ballet all their own. 

The flowers were sparkling like swamp jewels in the sunlight.

Time had been suspended and I sat for what seemed like a long time as the cypress swamp was pulsing with life.  Just like the otters,  hummingbirds know they are cool and can back it up.

the dragon tree

My fascination with trees is known by many but not always understood.  But how can anyone not be impressed by the dragon tree.

Unbelievable -  great tree.

the dragon tree -  not to be trifled with.

my friend