A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His bill can hold more than his belly can.
He can take in his beak,
food enough for a week,
but I’m darned if I see how the helican.
American newspaper editor Dixon Lanire Merrith wrote this catchy little limerick in 1910.
Today’s header and the preceding picture in today’s post both feature flying pelicans. The following picture shows a Great Blue Heron coming in for a landing. All three pictures were taken at the Wings of Spring, a Confluence Birding Festival. Anne and I went to this festival last year and enjoyed it enough to want to come back today. This year, in addition to Pelicans and Great Blue Herons, we also saw and/or took pictures of Snowy Egrets, Blue Winged Teals ( a kind of duck) and an eagle. In addition to the birds in the wild that we saw, we also saw a number of raptors, that were being displayed by a raptor rescue group. They showed a vulture, kestrel, Great Horned, Screech and Barn Owls. We’ll be working some of these pictures into future posts.
The confluence we are speaking of is the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. The conservation area where the festival was held is actually a few miles north of the Confluence, along the Mississippi, near the Mel Price Lock and Dam. Although, since it adjoins the actual Confluence conservation area, I guess it still counts. The river bank downstream of Mel Price was lined with fishermen, the river bank was also lined with these rather large dead and rotting fish. It turns out that the rotting fish are Asian Carp, an invasive species. They are not considered good to eat, so fishermen are instructed to kill them and leave them on the bank. Stinky!
I went biking in the Park this morning and got fifteen miles. A very large charity walk (March of Dimes) had taken over much of the Park. I navigated around their walk, the best that I could. Meanwhile Anne continued working her passport application. We have a Team Kaldi’s party tonight. Anne is bringing Asian influenced red cabbage slaw.