tosay, nature reinforced a lesson I've learned many times. Bob and I had a lovely afternoon, after playing joyfully in he Gulf of Mexico, birding various ponds, marshes and parks in the Gulf region. As we walked down the board walk out of the Aransas Birding Center in the marshland, both of us spotted an unusual bird perched very still in a near tree. It had a streaky breast, but sort of resembled a grackle. Bob spent maybe ten minutes looking in his bird book for streaky grackle look alikes. Nothing! Then the bird began sqwauking noisily and a mama grackle flewup and fed it. WE were seeing a baby bird, mama bird interaction, something I rarely see. Now in Texas, the grackle is a very common bird even in town, common enough to be pesty, also very raucous. But today this common bird gave me an extraordinary natural history lesson. So the spiritual lesson benieath the natural lesson seems to be: You can't predict who your techers will be and the magical, or at least surprise, can spring up when you least expect it.