Famous Hat: Eagles and Pelicans in Okee

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Eagles and Pelicans in Okee

Today Travalon and I couldn't get going again, so we went to the later, nearby Mass and saw the same couple we had talked to before, as well as the mother and brother of a long-dead famous comedian. The wife in this couple is also named Famous, and I thought she looked familiar, like the friend of a friend on MyFace. We talked for a bit, and I thought maybe she wanted to hang out sometime, but neither of us asked. When I got home, I wondered how to find her. What was their last name? I knew where her husband worked, and his first name, so I quickly found him with a Google search. Then I did a search on MyFace for someone named Famous with that last name living in my town... and a person popped up who was already one of my friends. No wonder she looked familiar! She must have sent me a friend request years ago because we have twenty-two friends in common. I vaguely remember accepting it even though I had no idea who she was. So I sent her a private message that we should hang out sometime, but I don't think she's seen it. Looking at her page, she doesn't post too often.

Travalon and I drove out to Okee to take a walk and check out the bird scene, and we saw lots of bald eagles sitting on the ice. We had seen some large white birds on the other side of the bridge while driving there, but we couldn't stop on the highway to check it out, so we walked along the bridge to see if we could find them. Suddenly we saw a pelican swimming much closer to us, so I assume the big white birds we'd seen from the highway were pelicans, not swans. Then we saw six more pelicans swimming in a group. This is the first pelican sighting of the year for us - I thought they hated snow and waited to come back later. This guy saw us looking at the birds, and he started telling us about which birds were around when, and that the shad (which I assume the eagles and pelicans both eat) grow in population for six years, and then there are too many and every seventh year there is a massive die-off. He said the pelicans have only been around for the last four years, which matches what we have seen.

When we came home, we went out to the dock and saw coots nearby and scaups further away. Then Travalon left to visit his mother, and I went for another walk. I saw my neighbor who is turning eighty on Tuesday, and the famous comedian's brother, and we were both like, "Hey! I saw you at Mass this morning!" He said, "I've been behaving perfectly since then," and I said, "I promise you that I am not keeping track." He was smoking a cigar as he walked along. I kept thinking maybe I heard a train horn in the distance, but it was so faint that I thought it was probably my imagination. When I got my move hours for the day and then my ten thousand steps for the day in quick succession, I headed inside... and as soon as I sat down to blog, I heard the train pass by. Sigh.

Yesterday all we saw off the dock were the mallard with a purple head and his mate.

We also saw this lotus seed head right off the dock! How did we not notice that before? If we had seen it when the seeds were ripe, we wouldn't have had to go out in the boat to collect lotus seeds.

Today as we walked along the trail to Paradise Island in Okee, we saw this hollow that we had never noticed before.

Here are photos of the eagles, the pelicans, and some gulls.

Here is a young one that seemed to be related to the mature one above, since at one point they were right next to each other.

This photo just makes me laugh.

A second juvenile eagle flew in and joined the first one. They touched beaks and hung out.

So I think this is their mom.

Here is a photo, slightly out of order, of the first juvenile eagle with the adult one. I wasn't going to include it, since it's off-center, but it shows how different they look, and that they seem to be related.