Take your kids to Disney World over the years, and they change like time-lapse photography.
This place makes you notice time passing. You also notice birds. Including a favorite, which I’ll get to in a minute.
First, quick impressions: A Mockingbird on an umbrella table. A pair of Ospreys hunting over Bay Lake. They don’t care if the lake’s manmade. Its fish are real.
Anhingas and Double-crested Cormorants are on the shoreline. White Ibises walk among crowds. Long-legged tropical birds acting like pigeons. Goofy.
Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures watch. Maybe a goofy Ibis is dead. Or a feral pig rots in the palmettos. There’s a lot to eat at Disney World.
A Wild Turkey walks the golf course. Boat-tailed Grackles are common. American Coots float in Fantasy Land. A Bald Eagle circles above it all.
Then there’s an all-time favorite bird. He was around when you were a kid and still is. Things change, but not him.
I found myself laughing at this in parts, then at the end felt like crying a little. How did you do that? .
Hickory, dickery duck.
An irascible drake ran amok.
His curses were muffled
When his feathers were ruffled.
Instead of quacking he quake.
Disney also created Latino birds: Panchito, Mexico; Jose Carioca, Brazil, both pals of Donald, the thrid bird in Tres Caballeors.
If we’re going to use the word goofy to describe a particular kind of bird, in this case an Ibis behaving like a pigeon, then that’s the perfect location for it. Fun. And how old is that wristwatch?
That last line got to me! And let’s not forget Huey, Dewey, and Louie!