Page 12 - Palm City Spotlight - June '21

Page 12, Palm City Spotlight

local happeNiNgS

Screaming Reels And Family prizes for first, second and third will be awarded to the teams
with the heaviest of each species, as well as a cash prize for top
Fun! ARC Of Martin County junior angler, and top lady angler.
Invites Anglers To Seventh Well supported by many area businesses, even nonparticipants
are encouraged to check out the silent auction and raffle
Annual KDW Fishing opportunities. Online bidding makes it easy to shop from the
comfort of home!
Tournament The ARC of Martin County, (Advocates for the Rights of the
Challenged) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated
Anglers of all ages are invited to fish the ARC of Martin County to empowering children and adults with I/DD through residential,
Seventh Annual ARC KDW Offshore Fishing Tournament on vocational, educational, behavioral, and other healthcare
Saturday, June 19 in Port Salerno, Fla. This will be a perfect Make it a vacation and stay awhile! In addition to being a services. “Our goal,” said ARC President and CEO Keith Muniz,
celebration for Father’s Day weekend while benefiting children proud sponsor of this year’s tournament, Pirate’s Cove Resort “is to provide support, assistance and training that will enhance
and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. & Marina is offering a discounted room rate of only $79 per the abilities for children and adults with disabilities to thrive each
Fresh air, the outdoors, fishing, and fun are the main night to registered participants if booked between May 1 and day and achieve their fullest potential.”
ingredients this year as you join the ARC of Martin County June 1 (taxes/fees not included). No boat? No problem! Limited “Without the support from our many partners, such as Publix
in celebration of their Seventh Annual ARC KDW Fishing fishing spots will be available on Safari 1 Deep Sea Fishing for Super Markets, PepsiCo-Frito Lay, Boars Head, U.S. Sugar, H.E.
Tournament in support of over 400 children and adults with only $100 per angler that includes rod, reel, bait, tackle and one Hill Foundation, and many other area businesses, we would not
intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) across the dinner ticket for the awards ceremony. be able to provide many of the supports that we currently do that
Treasure Coast. In addition to kingfish, dolphin and wahoo, Team entry fees are $200 if registered by June 4, or $250 after empower individuals with I/DD challenges to achieve their full
newly added categories of grouper and snapper ensure that date, which includes a bucket full of goodies per team and potential,” Muniz said.
diversity for anglers of all types! A captain’s meeting on four tickets to a gourmet barbeque dinner at Saturday evening’s For more information contact Tish Gelineau at the ARC
Friday evening, June 18, will kick off the one-day tournament awards ceremony. Additional anglers can join in the fun for $50 of Martin County, 2001 S. Kanner Highway, Stuart, Fla.,
on Saturday, June 19, with all activities based out of Pirate’s each and family/friends are welcome to purchase additional at (772) 283-2525 or tgelineau@arcmc.org or visit www.
Cove Resort & Marina, in Port Salerno, Fla. awards dinner tickets for only $25 each. $7,500 in total cash arcmc.org/events.

BooK review

The Hummingbirds’ Gift: of nature – a fragile, delicate creation consisting of a big

Wonder, Beauty, And Renewal heart, nine internal air pockets, hollow bones, and legs
so slender they have been described as “thread-like.”
On Wings Since the shimmering beauty of many hummingbirds
is already legendary, I offer the following brief excerpt
By Nils A. Shapiro as just one small taste of how much more about these
mini-marvels of the skies awaits you in these pages:
How Does One Describe “Alone among birds, they can hover, fly backward,
Perfection? even fly upside down. For such small birds their
I sensed it the moment I speed is astonishing ... a male Allen’s hummingbird,
came across this small (5- for instance, can dive out of the sky reaching sixty-one 500-mile span above the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight!
1/8” x 7-1/4”), “keepsake”- miles per hour, plunging from fifty feet at a rate of more Unable to feed at any point across the Gulf, they are near
size, slender book with its than sixty feet per second – and pulling out of his plunge, starvation by the end of their flight and must find sustenance
elegantly designed cover he experiences more than nine times the force of gravity. immediately.
– a volume so perfectly Adjusted for body length, the Allen’s is the fastest bird in the Author Sy Montgomery describes how she first became
suited to its subject: the world. Diving at 385 body lengths per second, this hummer interested in these unique birds, when she met a dedicated
jewels of the skies, the beats the peregrine falcon’s dives at 200 body lengths per woman, Brenda Sherburn La Belle, who is associated with
tiniest birds in the world. second – and even bests the space shuttle as it screams down a California wildlife hospital, WildCare, that has rescued
And when I noted the name Sy Montgomery – the through the atmosphere at 207 body lengths per second. infant and orphaned hummingbirds and raised them until
award-winning author of more than 30 books, many of “Hummingbirds’ wings beat at a rate that makes them they can be released into the wild. In The Hummingbirds’
them international bestsellers about the creatures of land, a blur to human eyes, more than sixty times a second. For Gift, Sy takes us, step by step – complete with color photos
sea and sky with whom we share this planet – I knew that centuries, people deemed hummingbird flight pure magic. – through the rescue and survival of Maya and Zuni, two
this was one I would want to share with my column’s Until the invention of the stroboscope, scientists could not orphaned hummers, from their naked, featherless first days
readers. Right then and there, I turned to the jacket’s front understand how hummingbirds hover. With a flash duration – a size almost as small as a dime – and what it took to keep
flap just intending to find out what the book was about ... of one hundred thousandth of a second, the stroboscope them alive, to the day they entered the skies.
and, before I realized it, standing in place I had read the finally revealed the motion of wings that had been too fast It is a heartwarming, beautiful story, as only Sy – who
author’s introduction and a few more pages, and decided for other cameras to capture.” was there to witness this mini-miracle – could describe it
that what I had already learned about the remarkable life Try for a moment to imagine a wing beat of 60 times per for us. One that has motivated my wife, Linda, and me to
of hummingbirds was alone worth the price of the book! second – over and over again, as the hummingbird moves hang in our home garden three hummingbird feeders (each
I should have known that, in Montgomery’s hands, from flower to flower all day long, hovering over each with places for five birds to feed at a time), and to have now
there was so much more to treasure here. After all, The one as it drinks the nectar with its long beak. The energy added several flowering “hummingbird” plants from the list
Boston Globe refers to Montgomery as “a combination required is enormous, which is why hummingbirds have that Sy has thoughtfully included in the book as being those
of Indiana Jones and Emily Dickinson,” because of large hearts, and why they must feed every 20 minutes in that attract these wonderful flying jewels.
the beautiful writing style in which she describes her order to survive. We look forward to feeding, and seeing, them. You
adventuresome experiences. These include being chased And think about this: There are tiny hummingbirds that should look forward to reading this book as soon as possible.
by a silverback gorilla in Africa; hunted by man-eating migrate from Mexico to Alaska, and that cross the entire It is a perfect joy.
tigers in India (which was the subject of a National
Geographic TV documentary); working in a pit with
8,000 snakes; being undressed by an orangutan in Borneo;
swimming with piranhas, electric eels and dolphins in the
Amazon, visiting with octopuses Aligned
in the ocean, and more. with
Readers of this column will
remember reviews of several of
Montgomery’s books, among Home • Auto • Boat • RV • Life
them: The Soul of an Octopus Flood • Business • Commercial
(a bestseller in 25 countries);
How to Be a Good Creature;
The Magnificent Migration about
the vast wildebeest herds in the Mary-Beth Zipsir
Serengeti; and most recently, Agent in Charge
Condor Comeback.
Now, she shifts her focus O: (772) 233-4444
from the condor – the bird with www.smartchoicepartnersfl.com
the largest wingspan in North
America – to one which, among It's our policy that you know yours
its approximately 240 species in
the Western hemisphere, has a total
body size that can measure just
over two inches! But in so many
ways the hummingbird is a miracle