Too Damn hot to be Walking the Dog
I’ve been on the hunt for new bird spots. So I went to check out the Benicia State Recreation area since its right on the water. Looking at these photos, I need to go back, but maybe when it cools down a touch. I didn’t really realize it at the time, but I should be able to notice when the weather is making me uncomfortable. I was really looking for the right spot to get some photos so I could get out of dodge. What I really need to do is go back and sit in one place, and just watch the pelicans fish. If its not 93° F outside that would probably be really nice.
These birds are tanks. Their wingspan is easily wider than I am tall, and they weigh upwards of 10 lbs, which is a ton for a bird. The fact that they can fish by dive bombing the water with their giant mouth sacks open without breaking their necks, just blows my mind.
The aerial maneuver they do when they decide to dive is elegant and intense at the same time. They heel back in a spiral and point their face straight at the water. It looks like its got to be like an olympic diver, where they sort of vanish into the water without a splash, since nothing could comfortably hit the water that fast, and then bam! There’s a huge splash and they’re right on top of the water downing their catch.
This picture is the one that makes me want to go back, because its just not in focus. Its close enough that I’m sure I could get it given a couple of tries. It really looks like its going to be a sleek dive every time, right up until the giant splash.
The further into this post I get the more I think I really need to go sit and watch the pelicans for a while.
I always love seeing egrets too. For the longest time I thought any white bird this size and shape had to be a great white heron. Turns out those are pretty rare, and mostly on the east coast. Oh well. Great Egret is good enough. Their necks look fake, how the hell do they control that wiggly thing, especially well enough to fish with it.
These things also have impressive wings, but they’re so much more delicate. When they land its like they’ve got a decorative feather boa on their wings. Watching them fish is also suspenseful, but in the same way that their impressive size feels different from pelicans through its elegance, their incredibly accurate cobra like necks feel much more scientific and less like it would be yelling woo hoooo! (which pelicans absolutely do, but they’re too far away for us to hear them) as it dive bombed some unsuspecting fish.
Squirrel!
