MAGNIFICENT ABUNDANCE
IN SPITE OF THE CHANGES DEVELOPMENT HAS WROUGHT, SO MUCH
OF FLORIDA���S NATURE REMAINS TO BE RELISHED
Story & Photos By Fran Palmeri
Contributing Writer
On a mild winter evening, I watch hundreds
of thousands of tree swallows fly in to roost
near Knight���s Trail in Venice. The birds arrive
from all over and then, as if on a signal, dive
to earth in a huge black funnel cloud and just
before touchdown, rise again to disburse.
Over and over, they rise and fall, the whirring
of their wings sounding like distant surf in the
Gulf of Mexico. Finally, the birds come to rest
in the trees and we onlookers go our separate
ways, still marveling.���
