Seen around town – August 2024 – #1

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Posted August 1, 2024 | By Bruce Ackerman
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A wood stork wades in the pond at Polly Palmer Park in Ocala on Sunday, July 28, 2024. Although the wood stork does not carry babies to expectant mothers, the bald-headed wading bird can reach the height of just over 3 feet tall and can be found only in a few areas in the United States, in Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia. It was reclassified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on June 30, 2014, from endangered to threatened. The “White Stork of Europe “figures prominently in mythology. They are revered in Greek, Chinese, and European mythologies as good luck and harbingers of spring and birth. The association between storks and babies was popularized by Hans Christian Andersen’s fable “The Storks,” written in the nineteenth century.[Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

Muscovy duck ducklings, with one seeming to be out of formation, swim in an arrow formation in the pond at Polly Palmer Park in Ocala on Sunday, July 28, 2024. The ducklings are only about two weeks old and are getting bigger and stronger every day. They stay with their mother for the first 10-12 weeks to stay warm. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

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