There were flurries of elation,
For the squawk had gone around
That the fish near Old Egret
Were there to take.
So the pelicans were plashing,
The gulls joined in the fray,
And all the others followed
In their wake.
They paddled in formation,
They made their presence known,
They owned every ripple
of the Quay ..
They shooed away the ferries,
Sailed proudly by the berths,
A flotilla in command
of all their sea.
B52s of bird-dom,
Our heroes lurched aloft,
Low- flying over
pelican domains .
And Old Egret?
Like a statue he held himself aloof.
From pelican- ish preening
he abstains.
A happy pelican morning one day at Elizabeth Quay, Perth. This pelican flottila that I ca\hanced to see really did look like it had taken full command of the area.
Mark is guardian and photographer for Mawson Bear, one of this bright world’s very few Writer-Bears. Mawson wrote It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In .
Baffled Bear Books 