Bird Week? Well, that was the idea when I started it over one month ago now. And yet, I’m still only at bird #6. Good thing I didn’t call it ‘Bird Month’… I might have felt beholden to sharing 30 birds instead of just seven.

Today’s bird is quite clearly a pelican, an Australian Pelican to be precise. They breed over on Mud Island at the south end of Port Phillip Bay. When they get old enough and start exploring, they eventually make it over to Phillip Island and San Remo. Every day at noon, a local organisation feeds the pelicans. They often take in the injured ones and nurse them back to health.

Over time, the birds have become pretty good at figuring out when feeding happens and turn up in varying numbers as the morning gets on. This was about an hour before feeding time when the pelicans are just patiently milling about waiting for happy hour.

 

Looks like it’s bird week on the blog. Birds are one of my favourite subjects, especially when they’re wacky birds like pelicans.

These pelicans are on the beach at San Remo in Victoria – southeast of Melbourne. At noon most days, a town employee comes down and feeds the pelicans. Dozens of birds turn up for lunch and all the happy tourists have a lovely time watching these crazy birds push and jostle for food. These three birds are either doing crowd control or they’re on the lookout for tourists getting too close to the flock. On the other hand, maybe they’re pelican secret service taking care of a celebrity bird.

I love this pair of birds. I know the front bird is out of focus, but I like imagining the stories that could go with this photo. I think the bird in front just told the back bird to hurry up. The back one (as the title of today’s blog says) is complaining about being rushed. Or maybe the one in back is complaining about the front bird making them late for lunch again. What do you think they’re talking about?