I stood by a tiny spring-fed stream at t he edges of a large housing development and a new "beltway" vast swath of pavement cutting through the once-pristine upland swamps fronting Seminole County's Lake Jessup, a "cotton Mouth" water moccasin had just left the stream in search of better luck and I had admonished my youngest niece not to get ahead of me as we walked to the edges of a railroad spur at the Tuskawilla housing tract which predators both above and below toured seeking supper. When we got to a clearing after watching two Bald Eagles escorting a fledgling's eagle's first flight, I pointed out to my niece: "See, up there real high another Bald Eagle is watching over the family. And what's that? Something floating towards us from up in the sky. My niece joined her mom to see the eagle next but I stood rooted with left hand palm up above my head, still watching what now I noticed was a white tuft of the high-soaring eagle's white neck and head. As the small flimsy feather continued to float Earthward I remained in my silent pose until both niece and mother rejoined me to see the tuft setting into my upraised palm. I handed over the feather to that newest Richards and said: "Here, honey, this is The Eagle's gift to us all. (Later that week I was alone in the same clearing when the two adult Bald Eagles with the fledgling in the middle swept over my head perhaps not 19 feet above, only he wind rushing whispers of their beating wings disturbing the scene. I apologize - to steal a phrase from a famous writer: I did not have your skill to make the descriptive shorter.
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