Salutations Bird Friends.
I first have to preface this post with some unfortunate news. Last weekend, whilst pursuing my latent dreams of becoming a professional soccer player vis-a-vis Friday night rec. league soccer, I injured my knee pretty seriously. The kneecap on the left looks more or less normal--not the world's most attractive knee, to be sure, but not the least. The knee on the right is swollen, misshapen, gross, and...lost.
Here is some photo-documentation of the cumulative effects of the injury: strained veins and massive bruising. At this point, the swelling is pretty bad and the leg is more or less useless.
The intent here is not to facilitate a pity party, though PARTY ON as needed, but to explain the paucity of birding posts that will be coming in the next few weeks or more. I have photos from a recent trip to Florida, the intention of which was to attend a friend's wedding, but any contemporary hiking and birding is at a standstill. Hopefully I can avoid surgery and a longer lay-up.
So, moving on to nicer, more pretty things, I'll start with some of the first scenes from my wife's and my Florida trip in early May. We landed in Ft. Meyers and drove to Naples first thing, hoping to catch the sunset and some beach time during our first evening. Of course, there were birds on the beach too...
I didn't know it at the time, but this Black-bellied Plover was the only one of the species I'd see for the whole trip, so my minor guilt at interrupting a romantic beach walk to take its picture certainly has not lasted. The soft evening lighting, cool breezes, and powdery sand of the Florida beaches are the most welcome of refuges for desiccated Arizonans.
Of course, the main objective of the Florida trip was to attend a wedding, but with that objective well-established and not under threat, there would be plenty of birding to fit in as well!
P.S. Apologies for the rather revealing shots. It's all for...SCIENCE.
