Bluebird of Happiness

One of my very first outings last year with my new camera was to Vilano Beach.   It was a little village that I just happened upon, as I had no idea that it existed, but what I did find was this strange little duck-bird thing.

I couldn't make out the motel name on it's belly, but I knew that someday I'd figure it out.

Until that time, I was just so very happy that I had a picture or two of the strange creature enclosed in a chain link fence.  He was just so peely and broken.  It was an unusual find to say the least.

See, it says Motel very clear but I couldn't figure out the name.

A couple of years ago the bird-duck was moved to it's current location behind the fence.  I found this photo on the St. Augustine newspaper site.  I was just happy to see a photo of this guy without the fence.

A few days ago as I was turning off a movie I was watching on the DVR, the TV news was on and showing this story about saving the Vilano Beach Bird!  If I had turned the movie off just a few moments later I would have never seen this story.  Thankfully I have a DVR and was able to rewind to the beginning of the segment.

I got out my camera and took pictures of the TV. 

I am indeed crazy.

It was 74º at 10:30 at night.

That's good to know!

So, after going to VilanoBeachFL.com I found out a little more about the bluebird.

I found this photo!!!!!  Oh my goodness, what a great photo!!

Newt's Motel - That's what it says on the belly of the bird.  You can clearly see that it's a bird in this photo.  In fact, Wilda, of Newt and Wilda, called this the Bluebird of Happiness.

So, the townspeople of Vilano Beach raised money and have decided to (and did!) paint the bird blue and turn his little clipped wings into proper flying wings as in the photo above.  They wanted to return him to his Bluebird of Happiness glory.

There is still a question as to where the bluebird is going to live once it's makeover is finished, but it's good to know that it isn't rotting behind a fence anymore.

What I did learn from poking around is that the bluebird was originally the advertisement for a place that sold oranges.  The bird wasn't a bird at all in the beginning, he was two oranges stacked on top of each other.  The original wings of the bird, may have actually been leaves?!  That part I don't know, but they could be.  Knowing that this was orignally oranges makes a lot more sense and makes the bird idea even more fun.  That Wilda was a visionary!

Hope you're having a wonderful Memorial Day!
Kristin