Today I went out without my camera
My otherwise constant companion
So I could not take snapshots to examine later
To select images to show what I saw.
As I remember the places we went
And what we found as we looked around
The scenes in my mind’s eye are perfect
Though I know they will soon fade like a dream.
I can feel the morning sun warming us
Standing there in Boca Ciega Millennium Park
The bright light penetrating the shrubbery
Where the white-eyed vireo flits about.
A moment here, a moment there
A glimpse of the head or back or side
Now and then the unique call notes
This is an unusual encounter for us.
Lunchtime we browse the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary
Just off the beach along the Gulf of Mexico
There are black-crowned night herons nesting everywhere
In the enclosures and outside in the trees.
Brown pelicans in breeding plumage in a colony
Hatchlings raising a screeching cacophony
The place is a concentration of feathers feeding
Be careful to keep a hat on as you walk underneath.
The afternoon bike ride to nearby Eagle Lake Park
Takes us in a loop circumference past the picnics
Crossing the bridge over the wetlands stream
We hear a call that’s different and stop.
Looking down from the bridge you see it
A sora rail so elusive we have never seen one before
Standing still there in the sun so close to us
In front of the marsh grass where it otherwise hides.
Such a lovely bird and what fun to add to our list
A lifetime bird an unexpected sighting
So pert as it flounces yellow up under the tail
Passersby stop and delight to see what we see.
Today I experienced these things directly
Without the intermediary of the camera.
Tonight I recall a little of what happened
Telling about it to hold the memory close.
