solstice

one of my favorite days of the year. today we released another pelican. it is so thrilling when they open their wings in that wide space and it is for the first time in weeks, sometimes more. the sea was all silvery and the waves made little wooden xylophone-y noises over the rocks. I wanted to go swimming. we saw a seal, too. just a dark spot bobbing through the waves. k lent me her binoculars so i could see the pelican out in the water just beyond the wavebreak. then there were four white egrets down the beach.

this morning there was a dead mouse in the water dish of the dove's aviary. perhaps only an inch or two long, eyes open. it must have drowned trying to get out. the doves were oblivious. also, there was a blue heron in the parking lot. it must have been over four feet tall. just standing there, near the road even. and i heard people are calling the paper here. they want to know why the cormorants are starving. what happened to all the fish.

also there was a rare duck -- i forget it's name. small, docile. it had to be hand fed and it took me several tries to figure out how to hold it on my lap and put the fish in its narrow serrated beak. i'm finally getting over my timidity when I hold the birds. their feathers are so strong -- when a finger slips through i worry that it hurts them -- it's just an automatic reaction. like i have to remember that it is okay that i'm holding this wild thing.