Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]This morning's Sacramento newspaper has a story about a flock of wild White Pelicans that had "invaded" a lake in the city of West Sacramento. Noting that my existing photos of this species are somewhat crummy I set off to find the lake and the pelicans. The lake, is turns out, is little more than a suburban neighborhood's duck pond. Pelicans winter in the wild lands surrounding West Sacramento but had never been seen before on this lake, causing quite a stir in the neighborhood. When I arrived there were at least 200 pelicans cleaning the fish out of the lake. In contrast to the Brown Pelican of temperate coastal North America, the American White Pelican feeds communally by herding fish in to a corner of the lake then dipping them out with their bills. Several large fish this morning began the transformation from fish to pelican. By 10:00 AM the pelicans began to leave the lake and by 10:30 all but a half-dozen had flown to other waters. I used the 560 Telyt with K64 in the SL. While I was shooting a man came up behind me and asked "are you taking pictures?" A long time ago I might have answered "Duhh!" but an excess of experience with this sort of response has taught me to behave politely. I answered in the affirmative, and the other guy then told me that he works for the city [of West Sacramento] and could I let him know when the pictures are developed, since he wants to buy some for the walls of city offices. He's the director of the city's Parks and Recreation department. We exchange business cards and we part with a handshake. "Sorry to bother you" he says. "No problem" I replied. Later I distribute a few more business cards to onlookers who also want prints. I've learned my lesson. Don't be a smart-ass in public. Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/telyt - -------------------------------------------------- Stay in touch with Northwestern and the world. Click http://www.nualumni.com to get your FREE Northwestern StartPage. Customize your own collection of the latest news, sports, stock quotes, and more. Check it out today!