Two Adults at Sunset Lake

[NewMexiKen]

I Struck Out

This was a week of near misses. After over a month in Illinois, we returned to South Florida and a myriad of tasks and appointments. The weather was so hot, with the Heat Index in the 105-110 range, and the mosquitoes so happy about the regular afternoon thunderstorms, that we never got to take our usual morning "power walks."

Strike One: When we arrived back in Florida, we attacked a mountain of backlogged mail, and I still have not caught up. One stale item was a local City of Miramar newsletter that narrated the discovery of three nests of Burrowing Owls in a nearby Park. The birds had been relocated from right field in a baseball diamond to just outside the ball field. Hoping that the owls were still there, and anticipating a photo-op from an air-conditioned car, we rushed over to see them. Their new digs were clearly marked with T-shaped white stakes, and a conspicuous sign declared the area as protected for "rare birds." However, the owls were never in sight, and I guessed that they had finished rearing their families and gone elsewhere.

Strike Two: Then, my printer died, or should I say that it only printed perfectly white sheets after sounding as if it were laboring very hard to produce high quality graphics.  After a couple hours on the phone with Dell technical support, it was decided that there was a hardware failure. They overnighted me a replacement, and Voila! It had the same problem. In the belief that lightning never strikes twice, I concluded it must have been a software problem. So did Dell, who informed me that my warranty only covered hardware, so I had to pay for help. This I did, and a poor guy with a heavy accent took remote control over my computer and worked on it for 10 straight hours, from before 10 AM until 7:30 PM. When he finished, I thanked him and asked what time it was in his location. He said it was 4:30 AM in India! All that for $69, a charge that I will not protest despite the fact his conclusion was that I had no viruses and there was no software problem. Therefore Dell will now send me a SECOND replacement printer!

I did have time to edit some of my Illinois photos. Three that I particularly liked were these of a Dicksissel, a meadowlark and a goldfinch.







Strike Three: This afternoon, while finally having time to catch up on correspondence, I was interrupted by a call from Kelly Smith, who has been following the local pair of Bald Eagles. She had received a call from her mother, who reported seeing an eagle atop a lighthouse in the middle of a large lake in our Sunset Lakes subdivision. I raced out to meet Kelly, only to find that the eagle had flown away only minutes before, and now was a mere speck in the cloudy sky. That speck was joined by another, and as they spiraled up the thermals and drifted ever so slowly our way, we saw that they both were white-headed adult Bald Eagles.

Too far for photos, so here is a picture of the lighthouse where Kelly saw the eagle perched:



And, here is clear evidence that the eagle, or some other creature with impressive excretory powers, had recently occupied the top of the lighthouse:

[Kelly Smith]

You know they say that bad luck runs in threes.  That means you must be due some good luck now!  The pictures are beautiful!

[lisa reardon]

this must be the same lighthouse where my friend has been seeing the bald eagles all these months!