Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/91307
There are no mountains in Sarasota County. The land is flat as a pancake around here. Had I wandered off-course into the Great Smoky Mountains? I saw green grass and white Span- ish Needle flowers. Butterflies in the hun- dreds, Barred Yellows (Eurema daira), in their summer and autumn morphs, darted about playfully, unabashedly mating — a coterie of little nymphs and satyrs! It turns out that I was at the foot of the high- est peak in all of Sarasota County. It's not a mountain but a gently sloping 75-foot-tall hill called "Observation Point." From its very tip-top, on a clear day you can see forever! Well, almost forever. You see skies, the fields, copses of trees by lakes and ponds, trails lead- ing throughout the 400 acres — and people fishing, jogging and picnicking. Tranquil en- joyments amidst the lively background of the birds — also fishing, picnicking and vying for their place in the sun, in the gnarled oaks, the reeds, the golden grasses and in the thermals high above Observation Point. The jewel I seek in this treasured bird sanc- tuary is the Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea aja- ja). Just a couple of years ago, we all would have had to travel to the "Ding" Darling Na- tional Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island to see a flock performing lively courtship displays. Poor John James Audubon had to travel all the way to the Florida Keys to find them. And what a miserably long journey he had by ca- noe, cutter and skiff. As he wrote in his jour- nal, "Reader, if you have not been in such a place you cannot easily conceive the torments we endured." He was referring to mosquitoes — something we fortunately lack in the cool, dry air of high season. Otus has learned the secret to seeing the glorious Roseate Spoonbill at Celery Fields. Photo by Rick Greenspun