Pandemic Diaries Weeks #40 & #41

 30 December 2020

NOT  MY  PHOTOS!!  These photos come from online, I didn't have my camera with me at the time.

 

I saw what I think was an ibis at the dock yesterday!  Ibises are wonderful birds, large wading shore birds with long curving beaks, so they are rather distinctive.

From a distance, walking down the dock, it looked like a white pelican, with the heavy body and long beak.  As I got closer, though, I could see that it was a long slender beak, missing the heavy pouch that is so pelican-centric.

Eventually, the bird gave a bit of a squawk and extended those long wing, which had a flash of black at the ends.  He/She flew down into the mud, since it was low tide and the intracoastal waters were rather low.  It/he/she foraged in the mud, looking for tasty items for lunch - maybe crayfish or small crabs, I'd guess.

 

The legs and beak seemed more yellow than red, though, so I'm not positive this was a white ibis, which are common in this region.  But the head was definitely white, not dark like the wood storks that also inhabit this part of Florida.  The legs were also nowhere near enough for the bird to have been a stork, egret, heron, or crane.  (They all have incredibly long legs!)  

 

And that curving beak is definitely ibis-like.

 

The best I can figure out is that is likely was a juvenile-almost-adult - pretty much all white feathers, but maybe the beak, legs, and eye area haven't turned that bright red yet.  Had she/he been younger, the feathers would be sort of a brown and white piebald assortment.

Or possibly female white ibises don't have as red a beak or legs.  Though looking at more photos online, not all American white ibis have the really red beak and legs anyway.

Anyway, it was really exciting to see.  Ibis were the sacred birds of ancient Egypt, and one species of ibis is referred to as the sacred ibis.   Actually, the sacred ibis has become an invasive species here, having been introduced in southern Florida.  But they have dark heads, so my new bird friend wasn't a sacred ibis. 

Of course, I had to read up on the sacred ibis of Egypt - ancient Egyptians thought the ibis was an earthly incarnation of Thoth, god of Knowledge, who was responsible for maintaining the universe, judged the dead, and oversaw systems of magic, science, and writing.  Legend said he escaped from a typhoon by turning into an ibis.  It was a capital offense to kill an ibis at that time in Egypt, and seeing an ibis or finding its feather was a sign of good luck and fortune.  And of course ibis were mummified and found in the tombs as offerings to the Egyptian gods.

 

Some Native American nations also believed the white ibis is a symbol of danger as well as optimism, because during a hurricane the ibis seem to be the last to seek shelter, and the first to emerge after the storm has passed.

 

So, I guess seeing this white ibis portends good fortune or luck in 2021!!!  At least I hope so.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

For more information about the American white ibis, whose region extends from the southern US to the northern part of South America: 

www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/white-ibis#

and

www.fws.gov/refuge/Pinckney_Island/wildlife_and_habitat/white_ibis.html 

Adult white ibis

Compare to the juvenile wood stork - darker head and more black on the wings.

6 January 2021

 

I was going to write something totally different today, but after the events in Washington DC, I just can't.  Everything seems trivial and pointless in comparison. 

So I will leave my ibis, a harbinger of hope and optimism and good fortune.  I hope that the runoff election in Georgia, the results coming out today, are part of that hope, optimism, and good fortune.

And I hope that the events at the Capital Building have awakened those complicit in said events, removed the blinders or rose-colored glasses, and acted as an antidote to the poisons that have been spewed over the past four years.

Last, I hope that in two weeks' time, we find ourselves in a kinder and gentler nation, or at least the beginning of that era.  That we don't have a repeat of today's events.  

 

And that yes, the hope, optimism, and good fortune of the ibis carries throughout our nation to enable our chasms to heal.  We don't need to all think the same, but we do need to stop hating those who don't think-look-dress-eat-believe-worship-act like we do.  Whoever we might be.