A tragedy in Bokeelia
To the Editor:
One beautiful, sunny February day, right here on Pine Island, I took a walk up to the north end of Porto Bellos Street. As my normal thing to do when going that way, I went out onto a dock, which has a lovely, little bench for watching the comings and goings up and down Jug Creek as well as Shell Pass where all the pleasure boats and shrimpers and crabbers go in and out into Charlotte Harbor from the various canals in the area. It is possibly the best vantage point of anywhere near my home for viewing both human and wildlife doings. So, there I sat myself down.
It didn’t surprise me a bit when a big old pelican splashed down into the waterway just in front of me.
First of all, he “usurped his authority” and swam right over to a sea gull that was just peacefully resting on the water and chased him away. So there he was all by himself, probably wondering what else he could do for a morning’s entertainment in the sunshine.
Well, he swam up past me a couple of times then dove down into the water, presumably to catch a fish, though I saw no evidence of that when he surfaced. As he was swimming by on one of his passes, he very suddenly raised his bill up out of the water and pointed it straight out in front of him parallel to his body, although they usually swim with the bill pointed down toward the water. I thought this rather odd at the time. He kept it there for quite a while and then out of the blue, a little brown bird landed right on his bill. Mr. Pelican didn’t even flinch. He just kept swimming along, giving the little bird quite a contented morning ride.
I sat and watched this scene for several minutes and marveled at the comradeship between the two.
After a while, old Mr. Pelican swam over to the pilings next to the pier where I sat. All of a sudden, he dropped his beak. It happened so quickly that I could hardly believe it. He swallowed the little brown bird down in one gulp. I watched as it went down that mean old Mr. Pelican’s throat. It just made me rather ill.
Sadly, I walked home trying not to remember the tragedy I had just witnessed. The untimely demise of a beautiful little brown bird. All caused by a cunning old Mr. Pelican.
All this leads me to perhaps believe the old saying; “There’s no such thing as a free ride.” I suppose there is sometimes “a free lunch” though.
Ester Anderson
Bokeelia