Pelicans have always been near and dear to my heart not because I am an avid bird watcher , rather because when my brother was in college (read, already an adult, but not really acting like one yet) he and some friends discovered that you can make 63 other words out of the seven letter word PELICAN including the six letter word PENCIL. Pretty cool, huh? Well, I love trivia, and every time I hear that word or see a pelican I tell anybody who will listen about my brother’s great accomplishment.
Tonight I am in the cockpit at PELICAN feeding time – sunset. It is a frenzy out there and there are so many of them all diving into the same place. I don’t know whether that is where the fish are swimming or something bigger has died over there. My suspicion is the former. Pelicans are everywhere in the BVIs and they are so funny. They circle their prey from above and then plop down in the water with such gusto, you can’t help but laugh out loud when you watch. And they zoom right back out of the water and start circling again. They must be swallowing while they fly because they dive right back in.