A bit of bird

Good evening. Tomorrow I get to see my bird friends again, including this one, with the dirty mouth.

Saturday, there was a group of visiting students at the center, and one enterprising young man took off with dads lighter to set fire to things. He happened to settle upon the dry grass in the parking area, and then lit the entire field on fire, underneath all the cars.

Florida is in its dry season right now, and I imagine the field went up just like what it was - kindling. Dry grasses and twigs, with our wooden mews in the background.

Nothing was hurt, except the lawn, and everyone managed to move their cars. Lucky for me, he stayed away from mine, which would have been unmovable with me gone on another program. Lucky for him, too. The fire department came, the police chief gave kiddo a talking down, and our resident hard-ass, Ms. Paula got in his face about endangering the safety of all our birds, as well as his peers. By the end of it, I'm sure the poor kid just wanted to melt into the ground. I'd be more upset at daddo and mom - where were they?

Even after all that, I think we found the least-informed kid in central Florida at the wetlands festival:

Teen girl (pointing at barn owl): That's a bald eagle, right?
All of us, hive-mind: No..
Girl (turns to Red Shouldered hawk): But that's gotta be a bald eagle, huh?
....