Bird Watching

Every morning we drive by a pier down the street that is really only pilings left after Katrina. Although it is in a prime location, I hope it is never rebuilt. One of the highlights of our morning drive is counting the pelicans roosting there. Top count is 14. To this midwesterner who didn't see the ocean until I was driving age, and then only from a plane, pelicans are fascinating. Somehow I had the impression they were rare, but they are everywhere here. How can you help but wonder how their absurdity can be explained by natural selection? They rather seem proof of the whimsy of God. Their heads look like wooden spoons tucked under their wings.

During the day, the pilings are covered with seagulls and the occasional cormorant, which always reminds me of The Story of Ping and tossing little boys overboard to catch fish.

But at night, (we don't have a decent camera, or I'd sneak down and try to get a photo of this), the cattle egret roost on the pier. They hunch up into their bodies and look like luminous white barnacles or whelk clinging to the pilings.

(First shot is from Flickr. Sorry one is mine.)