loads and loads of food (non-stop nibbling from 10am to 4pm), good company, a lovely breeze and a great view of the sierra madre would've been enough to satisfy me... but the thermaling raptors in the distance and a few overhead flybys were the icing on the cake.
honestly, i had truly thought that it was a bit late in the season and we had little chance to catch any of the migrants leaving. but it too beautiful a day (and i had too much sleep already from yesterday) to stay inside. well, i was sort of right, we probably had a total of fewer than five hundred birds. still...
a hundred raptors rising like a tower up from the mountains in the mid-day heat, higher and higher and higher is truly a fantastic sight. i never fail to marvel at this spectacle. how long have these magnificent birds been doing this? it must be close to perfection. regal creatures these are soaring so far above ground.
and now i realise how appropriate it was to celebrate earth day with these beautiful creatures. they are truly creatures of the earth, traveling across lands and oceans long before boundaries were set by man.
