Cloudy with a Chance of Pelicans
An Apostle Islands postcard
It is one of those mornings. I had debated whether to get up and go out early, the gravitational force of the warm bed balanced against another day of red-ball sunrise, horizons smudged by wildfire smoke, a heaviness in the air and in my soul.
In the end, I decided to go, sipping my coffee in a nameless bay listening to, and looking at, well, not much really. It is simply one of those days when not much seems to be happening. Some days are just like that. So, I throttle up, point the bow of the Little Dipper back towards Bayfield, and round the southern tip of Basswood Island down the North Channel.
And into a flock of pelicans.
Yes, pelicans. A flock of eight, ten, twelve of them bobbing on the waters like beaked snowballs. One minute the water was empty, the next minute there were pelicans, as if they had been conjured out of wisps of leftover morning mist.
American White Pelicans are not unheard of in the Islands. They have even occasionally nested here with mated pairs spotted on Outer, Stockton, and Michigan Islands. But, they are rare enough to be surprising, usually just passing through, as this flock probably is, resting in a quiet bay before heading further north.
I swing out and slow down, giving the flock a wide berth, drifting as quietly as I can trying not to disturb them and watching through binoculars. I am kept at bay both by their arresting beauty and the sight of their long beaks pointing down at the waters giving them the stern look of a band of school marms peering over their spectacles.
Theirs is a quiet presence, a regal and slightly comical air lending the morning a glow that hadn’t been there only minutes early. The surprise encounter is a feathered reminder that any and every moment carries within it the potential for beauty and awe, the falling stars of possibility. I cut the engine, open the coffee thermos, and sit back to watch as long as they will let me, glad to live in a world where any given morning can be this way - cloudy with a chance of pelicans.
— Jeff Rennicke (all photography by the author unless otherwise noted).
My email feed on this post read "cloudy with a chance" (and cut off there), and I wondered what you would see in the sky. . . I read the book "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" often to my kids years ago and I guessed it could be something exotic soaring overhead. And opened the email to read-- "pelicans." How fun to see these majestic birds over Superior! I first saw a flock of pelicans in the sky near Frontenac (south of the Twin Cities and along the Mississippi) a few years back. That was a special day too. Thanks for sharing your adventures.
Quite the sighting. One can only capture these rare moments slowing down and being present in the moment. A cup of coffee in the morning helps!