Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/86226
Dear Birder-in-training, A heartfelt welcome to Sarasota and OMG, did you ever come to the right place for bird watching! Celery Fields is THE place for bird- ing. People from all around the country come to Sarasota just to visit Celery Fields and see some of the 216 species of birds it hosts. Yes, 216 bird species, and another 216 Latin spe- cies names to keep in my head — it's enough to drive me loony. As you are a beginner-level birder, I suggest that when you visit Celery Fields you seek out the Limpkin (Aramus guarauna). Why? Well, because birds can be awfully flighty creatures and not always that easy to spot, especially when you are new to birding. At Celery Fields, where the limpkins have established breeding colonies, you are pretty much guaranteed a limpkin sighting, and, in season, you will even see their adorable (i.e., almost as cute as an owlet) chicks. To think that thousands of people spend so much time and money to travel thousands of miles just to see the limpkins that are in your very own backyard at Celery Fields. Lucky you! Lucky Sarasota! Two interesting facts about the Limpkin: Its name derives from its seemingly impeded gait when walking and stalking; and it is also fa- Otus still is asking readers to be on the look- out for bobcats and their kittens. File photo Keep medical decisions between a woman, her family, and her doctor. Visit www.VoteNoOn6.com VoteNoOn6.com Join the campaign today! Paid political advertisement paid for by Vote No on 6, 736 Central Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34236. Distributed in-kind by Sarasota News Leader, Post Office Box 5099, Sarasota, Florida 34277. mous, or should I say "infamous," for its ter- rifying screams at night. Dear readers, thanks to your questions this week, I've listened to the outraged squeaks of a Death's Head Sphinx moth, the pierc- ing nocturnal cries of a limpkin, and that famous Beetles' song "Celery Fields Forever." Please send in your accounts, with photos, of our noiseless Siesta Key bobcats, known by Native Americans as "The Fog." I want to hear the sounds of silence! Otus