The Babies

There it was, such a tiny nest precariously perched on a small decorative light cord covered above only with the cross-stitched sunscreen on a pergola in the back yard.  The tiny darting bird, wings furiously slapping air, is building a crude but perfectly engineered bed using spider silk and dull green lichen in which to lay two jelly bean-sized eggs.  

Within 3 weeks, little nestlings, their heads with spike-like hair on naked bodies bob and weave above the rim of the nest with beaks wide open and eyes clamped shut.

 

The feeding frenzy begins as the mother, an Anna Hummingbird, spends much of her time looking and foraging for insects and insect eggs found in local trees and on the ground.  Trip after trip, she makes, as she dutifully feeds her two babies the nectar and insects which she has ingested, only to regurgitate it deep into their crops. 

 

They grow quickly, new feathers appear and their beaks sharpen.  And they share the same small space, moving in unison for a comfortable spot.  The mother continues without hesitation to continue her sole purpose, and that is the constant feeding of her babies.

 

Eventually, it is time to leave the nest and face their world.  One at a time they each spend time flapping their wings, building up the muscles and tendons which will transform them into darting, hovering, zipping hummingbird.     

One is left and for another day she works her wings, practicing hard for the moment of lift off!.  After a long period of flapping, she lays down across the nest, pooped.  Eventually, she recovers and the next morning, she has left the nest.  

Graceful Mass

Along the southern coastal areas of the United States a large, but yet graceful  mass of a bird can be found residing in flocks, crowding about on ledges and spaces along the pacific ocean beaches.  It is the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis).  This large bird mainly eats fish, as it dives beak first into the ocean waves to catch its prey.

In Southern California, not a day goes by that I don't see a flock of brown pelicans soaring along the coastline in a follow-the-leader formation.  Often times, they will divert out over the ocean a bit, just barely clearing the heads of perched surfers waiting for that one special wave, as the big birds look for food.

 

 
In La Jolla, CA, there is a special area where the brown pelicans love to perch in colonies to sun and clean themselves.   La Jolla Cove is a semi-protected area of rock formations which gives the flocks of pelicans a place to land and preen.

A numbers of species of birds such as the egret, Cormorants, and a variety of seagulls all fight for the limited space with the pelican to rest and groom themselves.

The brown pelican is an interesting bird to observe.  The agility of the pelican's neck to bend and cork-screw about his body to preen is amazing to watch.  The large beak helps as he separates the feather to search out the bugs and other objects which he plucks.

 
Out on the edges of the water, among the rocks, the harbor seals bellow at one another as a pelican is on short final for the edge of the rock while seagulls pay no attention to the intruder.

The brown pelican has a beautiful plume with various colors on its head. Some have a red area on the gular pouch.

But it is the flying and flight maneuvers such as the landing which fascinate me:  the big soaring wings with deep slots at the end of the primary feathers are used to precisely land the large mass of the bird.

   

The up swept and vertical wing helps the pelican slip through the air just before it opens its wing to almost hover down onto the landing point.

As with anything in the day in which we live, it takes a bit of time and observation to see the marvelous and glorious creations about us.  The brown pelican is just one of those amazing creations which deserves the time to stop and consider its magnificence.