In Praise of the Pelican
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Thu 17 Mar 2016 12:43
| 15:52.15N 61:31.05W When we embarked on this trip one of things I wanted to record was the wildlife we would encounter. As you may have gathered there has been precious little of it at sea and this is a theme taken up by environmental organisations that campaign on behalf of the environment. Certainly with the amount of fishing going on it is a wonder there are any fish left at all and therefore all those creatures that feed upon them also. However, we have seen a few dolphins, a couple of Minke whales and, most spectacularly, a group of breeching Humpback whales. Sadly no photographic record of the latter but in some ways that just enhances the memory of a truly amazing spectacle. So I suspect there must be more out there than we have, or should expect, to see. Most of our wildlife action has been in harbour or at anchor. Had we the Go Pro camera we would like we could have recorded big turtles at our last anchorage, feeding on the seagrass 12ft below as we snorkelled above, rising to take their three breaths right by us before going down again. We could have recorded the most beautiful corals we have seen and wonderful brightly coloured fish on our scuba dive in the Jaques Cousteau reserve nearby. The bird that has most impressed so far is the Pelican. At first glance they are most ungainly with long neck, short legs and huge bill that makes them look as unstable as a pterodactyl and not dissimilar when in flight. Not that I have seen a pterodactyl in fight but there has been a lot of aerodynamic research on how such an unstable configuration could have flown. My model pterodactyl at the first Lucas Challenge certainly didn’t fly. But pelicans do fly and so elegantly! With only two or three flaps of the wings they are airborne and glide effortlessly on the breeze. Sometimes they skim along just above the surface of the water and at others wheel and turn when spotting fish in the water. This is the most extraordinary part; rather than paddling along scooping small fish and crustaceans into the pouch below the bill as I imagined, they actually dive into the water from a considerable height. Not as elegantly as Tom Daly or a gannet and in fact it was the enormous sploosh (if that is bigger than a splash) that first alerted me to this behaviour. They dive into the smallest of spaces in the harbours, often right in between moored boats. Rather than penetrating the surface of the water like an arrow and swimming after their prey they crash into the surface with the body hitting the water moments after the bill has scooped up whatever it is they are after. Its another Go Pro moment but I will try and take a few photos to illustrate. The other endearing quality of the Pelican is the fact that they go around in pairs and so, presumably, mate for life. They are happy to be functional rather than pretty, but are nevertheless extremely elegant, quietly going about their daily lives (I haven’t heard any noise other than the splooshes) in loyal pairs. I rather like them. |