The Brown Pelican: A Miracle, Clad in Monk-Brown Robes

Silent fisherman

Pelicans, like brown clad monks

travel single file.

"Gray Beach Day" by Wendy DeWitt

The sun sparkled across the water as the sun crept lower in the sky. I zipped my jacket up to my chin against the late afternoon breeze that blew in from the Pacific. Pelicans, silhouetted against the setting sun, streamed across Catalina Head, low in the sky their smooth passage was interrupted by occasional flaps of their wings. "Modern-day pterodactyls," I think, "Bombers returning from their afternoon sortie."

A miracle, clad in monk-brown robes.

The Brown pelican is something of a miracle, a conservation success story. A testament to the power of the Endangered Species Act. Almost extinct in the 1970s, their numbers have rebounded such that they have been de-listed as an endangered species.

Encounters with an Oarfish

Two oarfish were sighted off Isla San Francisco in Baja California!  The story and videos of the fish are on the Smithsonian website.

For more about oarfish, read this from the American Galapagos blog.