alonso@cgl.ucsf.edu (Darwin Alonso%Dill) (10/19/88)
Things have been awfully quiet on the bird net recently so.... The other evening I was running along a rural lake in a small valley just to the east of the California Coastal Range (near Va- caville if you're familiar with the area). I was the only person there, and a spectacular sunset had me in a good mood to begin with. I was checking out the few cattle egrets and killdeer on the shore of the lake when I suddenly became aware of something very big and silent overhead. Two V formations of white pelicans consisting of about 50-75 birds in all were coming in to land on the lake. These big birds are one of my favorite, and I don't get to see them very often on the coast. Something about the number and size of birds combined with the complete silence and the beautiful solitude of the sunset made it one of those (recently all too infrequent) moments when it is all worth while. Anybody else out there?