Pelicans! Pelicans! Pelicans!

It's been awhile since I posted a Marsh Project post.  I have several reasons for that: I got busy with the holidays, I needed to take a brief writing break because my brain needed a rest, and the marsh trail has been partially inaccessible due to flooding and rain.  I'm putting that project on hiatus until the trail dries out a bit because right now all the posts would be the same: Look! Water! Mud! More mud! Look at all the mud! OMG, there is so much mud out here! So I'm going to focus on something different: American White Pelicans. 

Sometimes when the good Lord taketh away, the good Lord also giveth- and in this instance, the good Lord gave American White Pelicans below the dam at the nature preserve.  These pelicans show up when the dam is releasing massive amounts of water, and they usually stick around until the release goes back to normal.   How the pelicans know the dam is releasing water, I do not know- but they do.  Human fishermen also show up to take advantage of the fishing, which sometimes leads to unfortunate humankind-pelican interactions, like pelicans getting entangled in fishing line.  Other birds- osprey, herons, egrets, cormorants, kingfishers, and bald eagles- also come looking for fish. 

I could watch these pelicans for hours.  OK, confession time: Sometimes I DO watch these pelicans for hours.  I'll sit down with my camera on a rock, thinking that I'm only going to stay for a few minutes, and then the next thing I know the park is closing and the ranger is telling people it's time to go, or my stomach will start growling and I'll realize that I've been watching pelicans for almost two hours and it's time for lunch.  One of my New Year's goals was to spend much less time on Facebook, so I figure that if I'm watching pelicans, I'm not on Facebook arguing about politics.  Win-Win. 

The pelicans are very entertaining to observe. They're huge birds, but wonderfully graceful in the air. They'll fly up from downstream towards the dam, looking like small pelican-shaped aircraft, until they get close to where they want to be, then they put their feet down to prepare for landing.  They will float on the water, just kind of hanging out like a bunch of teenagers at the mall, until several of them will decide that it's fishing time.  They'll rise up out of the water, wings flapping wildly, and all meet together in one spot.  If you observe closely, often you'll see one pelican come out of that with a fish in its beak.  It happens really quickly; I've concentrated my efforts on getting better at reading pelican body language so I can tell when this is getting ready to happen so I can be prepared with the camera, but that is definitely a work in progress. 

I recently discovered that my camera has a sports function on it, and if you are using the sports function and you hold the photo-taking button (I'm sure it has a technically correct name; I just don't recall it right now) down, the camera will keep taking photos until you release the button. So, instead of taking thirty photos and getting three or four good ones, I can take two hundred photos and get three or four good ones.  I mostly use the auto function of the camera because I'd rather be looking for wildlife to photograph rather than learning how to use the camera, but I might have to pull up the manual and read it; maybe there are other functions that would be useful. 

I'm including some of the photos I've taken in the last few weeks so that if you have not been fortunate enough to see these birds IRL, you can get a glimpse of how great they are to watch and how beautiful they are.  I'll be glad to have my marsh trail back for hiking, but I'll also be sad to see the pelicans go.  

If you're intrigued, like I am, by these pelicans and want to learn more: 

All About Birds: American White Pelicans

I'm So Bored, Mom

Over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, I did something unforgivable to the Son of Never Stops Eating, and he will never let me forget it.

For awhile now, I've been telling him that we should probably get him a state-issued ID card.  He has a debit card and a school ID, and the next step in Transition to Adulting would be obtaining a state ID card.  Really, the only obstacle was that I didn't want to take a day off work to wait in line; I knew the Son of Never Stops Eating would be thrilled to take a morning off of school no matter what the reason, but I want to use my own work leave for exciting stuff like birding, or deep cleaning the garage.  

January 2nd was a cold and miserable day; as I was out running errands, the thought popped into my head: Hey! I bet EVERYONE is sleeping off their New Year's partying hangovers and watching football bowl games and going to the gym to work out as part of their New Year's resolutions, and the people who aren't at the gym or at Whole Foods stocking up on healthy food or at work are probably looking outside at the rain thinking, ewwww…..who wants to go out there?  I bet there is NO ONE at the Department of Public Safety office! I raced home, picked up the Son of Never Stops Eating and the documentation we needed to prove citizenship, residency, and identity, and raced back to the DPS, convinced that the office would be empty except for the people working there and that those people were probably bored out of their minds at the lack of customers and would be thrilled to see someone.

This is going to be great, I told the Son of Never Stops Eating.  We can get this knocked out and I won't have to miss work and you won't have to miss school.

I'm OK with missing school, Mom, he said sulkily.  Nothing ever happens at school except boring stuff like learning.  You're the only one who doesn't want me to miss school.

We walked into the building and up the stairs....where it immediately became clear that lots of people had apparently had exactly the same idea I'd had- the day after New Year's Day was going to be an excellent time to go to the DPS.  

Oh, I said to the Son of Never Stops Eating.  It looks like everyone had the same idea I did. He rolled his eyes and gave a deep, angst-filled sigh.   But now we're here, so we might as well wait.  Thirty minutes later, we were still waiting, but we'd moved slightly closer to the front of the line- which was, a helpful DPS lady came out and informed us, about a three hours long line.  By then I was committed.  I'd already invested thirty minutes of my time into this project plus the gas and wear and tear on my vehicle;  if I left now, those thirty minutes were completely wasted.

I bet if the Orange Man weren't President there wouldn't be lines like this, the Son of Never Stops Eating muttered.

An hour later, the end of the outside line was in sight.  We'd still have to wait some more once we got into the DPS itself, but we'd get to sit down.  My lower back was aching and my right knee was starting to hurt.  The helpful DPS lady came back and repeated her spiel- three hour wait, lots of kids out of school, you could make an appointment or renew online.  The Son of Never Stops Eating sighed and said Mom, this is SO boring.

Another hour later, and we got a number and two chairs.  I sat looking expectantly at the electronic board flashing the numbers of who was next; the Son of Never Stops Eating sat next to me, explaining to me on a regular basis just how boring this was.  I know it's boring, I told him.  This is what adulting is.  Adulting is waiting in lines being bored so you can fill out paperwork and hand over money to people. It was worse before smartphones. At least now we can all catch up on our social media while waiting in boring lines.  Mom, he responded, this is the most BORING thing ever.  NOTHING is more boring than this. This is even more boring than school.  This is my vacation and you're making me wait in this BORING line when I could be doing fun stuff like Legos and watching Simpsons.

Finally, another hour later, and our number flashed up on the board.  Hey, I told him, that's us! It's our turn! He sighed dramatically and said, so we're done with the boring stuff?  We can go home now?

The actual process of getting the ID card only took a few minutes.  It doesn't seem to expire for several years, for which I am personally quite grateful.  However, the next day I mentioned to someone within the Son of Never Stops Eating's hearing that we'd gone and gotten his ID card.  Yes, he said, my mom made me do it and it was SO BORING!  Then a few days later we drove by the building and he made sure to point out that it was the Building of the Boring Place.

He will never forgive me for taking him there and making him wait forever to get a little plastic card, but I didn't have to take a day off work- so the experience wasn't a total loss.