Yesterday, I took my 12-year-old nephew from Florida to the Zoo to see the stingrays; he was delightful about being ready on time, and didn’t complain about the walk at all, which is about 2.5 miles each way, I think…and I told him that on the way, I would pause if I saw any “interesting” birds. He got quite interested in the birds he was seeing, and mentioned that they didn’t see the American Robin in Florida; he kept asking about each bird, “Is it common?” and he laughed when I told him that the Grackle was called the Common Grackle! “Then why are they not called Common Starling and Common Robin and Common Pigeon?” he asked logically!

At the Des Peres creek, I spotted this GREEN HERON:

It was a beautiful, colourful bird, and there’s more info about it

here .

It’s been a very hectic, enjoyable but tiring weekend…it’s also been a month since our departure and though there is much joy here, I cannot help missing home very, very much…..this is the longest time I have been away from home for many years!

Oh..and this nephew…it’s very funny, he’s totally gone on gangs, mafia and everything associated with it…he keeps wanting to know if St Louis is more dangerous than Chicago, identified several people during our walk to the Zoo and our drive downtown who, according to him, were smoking “crack-cocaine” or were members of gangs, and he wanted to know if this area or that were “ghetto” areas and dangerous!

I have told him to come to India, where I told him I could show him all the “ghettos” he wanted!