It’s a Parade!

This morning I looked out my window to a parade! A parade of 45 ibises! When the rain stops they come out of the woodwork, or jungle, or swamp, or wherever they hang out. You always see a group of them around, but 45 exceeds a group. That’s an assembly! They like to eat small crustaceans, a frog or two, and the occasional snake. All the standing water left behind by Hurricane Hermine means the buffet is open, and the ibises are bellying up to the bar.

Ibises are plentiful in Florida and a beautiful bird, so the first time I heard them called Florida pigeons I was taken aback! My experience with pigeons goes back to my days at Arizona State University, and making a well-timed dash for the door of the life science building. The windows of that building were recessed. The perfect roosting place for pigeons! You could always hear them cooing, which meant they were there, and they were always there. I would look up, making sure I saw nothing but heads, no tails, and then bolt for the door, hoping nothing plopped on my head, my back, or my books.

A pigeon is roughly a foot tall and weighs in at 12 ounces. An ibis, on the other hand, is almost 2 feet tall, weighs in at 2-1/2 pounds, and has a wingspan of 3 feet! That means the bombing run it makes at you or your car has a significant impact. They walk tirelessly on the ground in search of food that they dig up with that long beak, but they roost in the trees. This is a beautiful sight, but could be the reason there are so many car washes in Florida.

Watching my ibis parade made me smile. The reward for suffering through a week of rain.