Monday, April 12, 2010

A pelican update


Why is it that when I set out along the marsh shoreline after deciding whether to take the camera or the binoculars along, I find out I've decided wrong? The camera is small, fits in a chest pocket and always should go along.

Two-thirds of the way to the dock this morning I spotted through maybe 30 feet of shorline brushyness what I took to be an inflated white plastic sack stuck among the weeds. Rounding the point, the sack took off and soared just a few feet above my head --- a lone pelican that had been drowsing or browsing until I'd disturbed it.

It circled, then headed back northwest across Highway 14 to the west pond, where about a dozen pelicans --- and a lone great blue heron --- were resting.

As I walked back in that direction, most took off for the northeast corner of the big pond, but four still were there when I parked, walked across the highway and got as good a photo as I'm likely to get. The heron, still there when I parked, had flown by the time I got across the road.

No comments: