Today I ridgewalked in Shelby County in search of a cave that I had found twenty years ago. Ack! Ack! No luck! So I guess I will go to my grave not taking the location of my secret cave with me. Ack! Ack!

But as I walked the backbone of the ridge I noticed a large white array of bird dropings. Being smart I looked up and saw (and counted) twenty large stick nests in the tops of three eighty-foot-tall pine trees.

This was strange. Most big birds in Alabama are not that congenial.
But then I saw them circling in flight...they were white ibises.
White ibises are not particularly common this far North but they were unmistakable. Strangly they were nesting about two hundred miles from the coast, and that is the most convincing evidence of "global warming" that I have yet to see.

But big deal.

I think I'll go back and shoot a couple of ibises just to verify that they are worthy of the designation of being "endangered".