Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #207…seeing double

Jez is our guest host for this week’s challenge and as I’m posting this on Monday morning, maybe one or two of you really are seeing double after a rough weekend. I hope not. But this challenge might make you feel that you are, even if you had an abstemious two days.

Double pizza on offer at Manhattan Pizzeria at Manhattan Beach, California. Didn’t try the pizza but enjoyed the wall art.

These two pelicans did everything together for the longest time: swam, ducked heads under the water to fish, raised wings, turned, repeated. Someone told me they often do that but I’d not seen it before. Ballet on the water.

Matching boojum trees. I’m not making this up or taking it from Dr. Seuss (of whom more later.) These “trees” are actually succulents from the occitillo family and are fascinating, protected, and expensive! You can read about them here and I promise you it’s an interesting read. The name comes from a poem by Lewis Carroll, “The Hunting of the Snark” which ends:

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,

   In the midst of his laughter and glee,

He had softly and suddenly vanished away—

   For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.

Coffee with a friend. These decorations could be a metaphor for us: although we’re not exactly the same, we are definitely a lot alike in the ways that count.

Be the sun on the right!

Bottoms up!

Yes, a repeat but it works so well for this challenge, don’t you think?

Finally, I can’t resist seeing double things here, catnip-filled things that, along with the catnip Cat in the Hat that I cropped out on the left, were a Christmas gift for our younger daughter’s cat last year.

Pelican breakfast club

Lens-Artists #155 – (White) On the Water

This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge by John at Journeys with Johnbo coincides with the last weekend for “white” as the theme for Life In Colour (yes, I know Jude doesn’t know how to spell “color” but you’ll have to excuse her–she’s British.) So here are three examples not only of white but also of white reflections on water, all the more for your time. I wish you all a wonderful weekend. I’ll be watching stage 8 of this year’s wild and crazy Tour de France (but not until the replay, as it starts at about 4 am here.)

“Water is the driving force in nature.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

We’ll start with tiptoeing on water while creating a reflection…

“Praised be my Lord, for our sister water.” St. Francis of Assisi

…floating on the water while reflecting, and finally…

And just because:

“It seems rummy that water should be so much wetter when you go into it with your clothes on than when you’re just bathing, but take it from me that it is.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves

…synchronized swimming (and diving and eating) while reflecting on water.

And never forget this classic poem and a second version:

A Wonderful Bird Is The Pelican

By Dixon Lanier Merritt

A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican,
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week
But I’m damned if I see how the helican!

Another version:

A funny old bird is a pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belican.
Food for a week
He can hold in his beak,
But I don’t know how the helican.

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/a-wonderful-bird-is-the-pelican-by-dixon-lanier-merritt

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #142 – You Pick It!

Ann-Christine gives us the choice today to pick what we’d like to share and her beautiful flowers can literally be picked. What do I have here in Arizona? Since our move just over a year ago, other than cacti, I’ve been mostly taking photos of birds, so here are a few recent favorites.

Let’s drop in at the Riparian Preserve and see what we can find. A harrier hawk is always fun.

“He imagines a necessary joy in things that must fly to eat.”
― Wendell Berry

“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”
― Robert Lynd

Then there’s the spoonbill who came during one of the storms in the south and has been here all winter. Here it’s balancing on one leg while looking astonished. Is that like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time? Pretty in pink but what a big mouth!!

may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living ~e. e. cummings

There are lots of spectacular birds but there are also the cute, more approachable ones that you might see in your yard.

Wherever there are birds, there is hope. Mehmet Murat Ildan

If you’re a fish, you’d prefer to see this haughty cormorant perched on a limb rather than in the water where they run silent, run deep, run deadly.

Tomorrow, the birds will sing. Be brave. Face life. ~Charlie Chaplin

A pod of pelicans arrived towards the end of last year and a few have stuck around. I didn’t realize that pairs like this fish and swim in tandem, for all the world like synchronized swimmers. Of course the swimmers don’t usually eat fish while performing, at least I hope not!

And now it’s back to the weekend. I hope you’re enjoying yours.

Everything is black and white

Although when in the sleepy pod the first day I saw them these American pelicans looked, with the exception of their exceptional beaks, completely white, on this day they were showing off their underlying black decorative touches.

“Life is better in black and white!”
― Avijeet Das

“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!”
― Ted Grant

Does this count for birds, too? Stretch those wings!

“The most colorful thing in the world is black and white, it contains all colors and at the same time excludes all.”
― Vikrmn, 10 Alone

Little photo bombing snowy egret in the background.

Photo bombing again, but in aggressive cormorant black. Doesn’t the middle pelican look as if it has its proverbial hands on proverbial hips in annoyance?

It’s also Pearl Harbor Day here in the U.S. as well as my mom’s and good friend’s birthdays. Can you imagine living in California and having your birthday on Pearl Harbor Day? Not the best birthday my mom ever had!

Oh, my gosh, that’s a jaw-dropper!!

for Six Word Saturday 11.28.20

P’s in a pod

Yesterday I finally ventured back to the Preserve in weather chillier than that in Chicago and Philadelphia. There weren’t too many people, but there were still lots of birds. I saw what I thought was a group of egrets huddled together. Turns out they were pelicans, a first for me!

The woman I was standing near asked me what a group of pelicans was called. I said a pod because it sounded good together and lo and behold, I was right! The group can also be called a pouch, a scoop, a squadron or, if they are fishing as a group, a fleet. In science-fiction movies, you should never, ever go near a pod, especially slimy one. However, this pod was benign, but chilly.

As the sun came out, heads began to rise.

Ahh, feels SO good to stretch and yawn. My, what a big mouth you have!!

Monday walk to the rookery

Not far from us is the Lake Renwick Preserve, home to cormorants, egrets, herons, pelicans and more. During the breeding season, March 1 through mid-August, the preserve is only open for public programs and guided bird viewing so as not to interrupt or bother the birds. On a nice day, it’s a lovely walk. This day was several summers ago, but worth a revisit!

Tree swallow seems like a rather colorless name for this bright beauty.

The main nesting area looks more than a bit like something from “Pirates of the Caribbean.”