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TEXTING THE OWL

My uncle and I went out on the Wacissa River this afternoon. We were hoping to find an owl. The owl was hooting and very close by but very busy nesting. We saw plenty of gators and a Black crowned night heron, an immature Blue heron among others. Notably, we saw two turtles that had been sliced in half by motorboats and were still surviving at least until now. Photographed below.

Yes the Sanguine Root condemns motorboats on the Wacissa.

On a lighter note, I was on my IPhone checking my email and texts as one does and my uncle asked if I was texting the owl. Oh yes indeed we are here ! Who Hoo Hoo and Hoo!! The owl texted (hooted actually) me back right away that she was busy with her nesting operations.

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Skunk cabbage blooming in the wild in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia

In a ravine alongside a stream just north of the Horticultural Center, Wednesday February 21st 2024. Oddly mimicking the Skunk Cabbage flower in the picture above is a piece of a crashed and burned automobile which had scorched the other side of the stream, filled with burned seats and melted metal. A typical scene in Fairmount Park and all over Philly I hardly noticed the carnage.
For at least millennia this stream flowed into the Schuylkill River until the mid twentieth century when the Schuylkill Expressway was built over it filling in a vast portion of the ravine and sending the stream into an often blocked up tunnel. Yet the upper portion of the ravine is intact and has many of the long time flora surviving, including this population of skunk cabbage as well as Mayapple, Redbud and Spring beauty to name just a few.
I will call for it again and will continue to make my demand: The Schuylkill Expressway must be dismantled! It is not inevitable that it will last forever.
From an evolutionary point of view, what advantage does the expressway have over the Skunk Cabbage?