A wonderful bird is the pelican,His mouth can hold more than his belly can,
He can hold in his beak,Enough food for a week.
I'm damned if I know how the hell he can!
a Southern US newspaper editor and president of the American Press Humorists Association.
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Sometimes birds get caught in a storm and are literally blown away from home. This lonely looking Pelican settled down at Pleasant Lake just North of Phoenix, after he found himself an Arizona rather than a California bird. There are fish in the lake so he won't starve, but he's far from birds of his feather.
We sometimes have Sea Gulls blown into our Prescott Lakes, but I don't remember a Pelican. I don't believe anybody makes any effort to catch these birds and take them home. They have to do, as we all must do, when something unexpected happens in our lives that diverts us from our planned course. They have to manage the best way they can.
I, like many others, thought Ogdan Nash wrote the poem above, but according to several sites I visited it was Dixon Lanier Merritt.
11 comments:
Some of the most marvelous adventures happen when you're blown off course!
"A wonderful bird is the pelican", indeed. Your American humorist Dixon Lanier Merritt reminds me a lot of the German humorist Wilhelm Busch who wrote the wittiest rhymes about the sadest situations.
I feel sorry for this lost bird and hope his instinct will lead him back to his flock and to the ocean.
Check in with the local Audibles -- they probably have a record for at least one pelican locally. As for that wonderful verse, I was looking through my Real Mother Goose volume last night and was surprised that it included many of those little one-verse ditties I would never have guessed were from the Mother. I thhink I'll scan a few of the wonderful pix from that particular collection for a post...
what a great picture...and a really funky looking bird...
I feel very sorry for the Pelican. We see lots of them here of course, as we are by the sea. We had a recent lovely story, where one had it's beak broken. When it was returned to the wild, it had a fibreglass beak repair, & could catch fish as well as the next one.
I hope this Pelican will find his way back to where he belongs. When I visited Tortola years ago, a local told me that a Pelican eventually goes blind after years of diving after fish.
Mary Beth, that's so true! We can't always tell which cloud has the silver lining..
Olivia, Wilhelm Busch sounds like an interesting poet to read. I'll try the local library..or the net.
My heart goes out to this guy too. Pelicans migrate many miles so I think he has the strength to fly home if he can remember the route.
Hey Teach, isn't he!
Meggie, that's such a heartening story about the fiberglass fixed Pelican! I would love to live by the sea..
Lydia,It seems as though some group might take on the job of transporting blown-in-birds home! Going blind because of the way you feed yourself seems so harsh! One can't help but question Mother Nature at times..
Oh what a treat for you. At times we get birds that don't belong here like the egret and sea gulls. It is always a joy to see them.
Poor lonely pelican - even though he can find food it must be hard to be seperated from his own kind. I hope he does eventually get home to California.
I've been very remiss in taking so long to say thank you for the You Make Me Smile award - I appreciate it very much. Life has been somewhat hectic since my return from the USA. Now I have to get DH to transfer it onto my sidebar for me:)
gj, there may have been some Pelicans blown in here over the years..
A Mother Goose Post sounds like great fun!
Joni, that's a long way for those birds to blow! They must be happy to find a place like your lagoon..
Welcome home Rowan! I'm looking forward to reading about your trip.
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Is the lake salt water or fresh water? And does anyone know whether a pelican needs the nutrients that can only be found in salt water fish?
Like everyone else, I hope this lonely bird finds its way back to its flock.
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