Pelican Day

I’m currently enjoying a class at Clatsop Community College – Nature Journalling, taught by our friend, Julie Tennis, who is a bit of everything when it comes to nature. A bee keeper, a sketcher, a friend of all creatures. This class is mostly about learning to take field notes; how to observe. We study in class on Wednesdays and go out every other Saturday for a field trip. Last Saturday she arranged for us to visit the Wildlife Center of the North Coast – a place that rescues birds and does it quietly, carefully, and with great compassion.

We first were given a tour of all the pens and then set ourselves up inside a large netted area with cormorants, brants, and two pelicans, an adult male brown and a teen-aged male white. After an hour with the birds (they settle down after we’ve been sitting awhile), we moved on to visit a large group of murres. Cutest little guys; they would approach us and peer at us with questioning eyes.

Isn’t he beautiful? (Photo courtesy of Julie Tennis)