Gus and Cinderella....Those Silly Birds!

  Gus and Cinderella are our pair of resident brown pelicans.  They stay year round next to our pier or my brothers.  The birds are smart.  They know that free food is for the taking here.  When we clean fish, all of the scraps are given to these birds.  Don't get me wrong...at the moment, there are dozens of brown pelicans on the piers but these, two, are special.  They were named by my little granddaughter during one visit to the Bayou.  She had heard me calling one pelican "Gus" and declared the other to be Cinderella.  Before this naming, all pelicans were Gus.  There were no Cinderellas, Penelopes, Brunos or any other named birds.  They were all Gus....male or female.

  Yesterday, dozens of the pelicans were sitting on my brother's pier.  Each pier post had its own bird and the edges of the pier, itself, were lined with resting birds.  This is normal.  What is not normal is the two pelicans that were swinging on a rope.  My brother has several large boats tied off to his pier.  The ropes are strung from boat to post.  This crisscrossing of ropes made for an inviting pastime for a couple of pelicans....maybe Gus and Cinderella.  The birds would fly in, land on the rope and swing back and forth in the stiff north breeze.  Then, since their feet are not exactly designed for perching, the birds would lose their grip and start to fall.  The rope kept swinging causing the birds to have to take flight again.  The balancing act did not dissuade the birds from trying.  Both pelicans would fly a large circle around the pier and attempt the swinging perch again.  Gus and Cinderella were having far too much fun to let a wee thing like webbed feet get in the way of their playtime!

  Pelicans are some of the most comical birds around the Bayou.  Besides their crazy antics on the swinging ropes. I become amused at their waddling gait, their begging for food with their huge, gaping bills and their awkward splashdowns.  But, at the same time, they are some of the most efficient flyers being able to soar just inches above the water and they have great fishing techniques.  It is no wonder that I love these big old birds!  Just keep swinging, Gus and Cinderella!  Just keep swinging!