Today I saw 10 pelicans above downtown Edmonton
A remarkable and a quite remarkable and a truly remarkable thing happened at the farmers market this afternoon. In exquisite formation, 10 American white pelicans soared overhead. I stood dumbfounded, at first thinking they were airplanes. I do this. I mean, I transpose nature into artifice, as if somehow birds resembled aircraft and not the other way around. For a few heartbeats, the creatures flew out of sight behind the old GWG Building. I ran, and they reappeared over the new museum, banking to the north, then looping back and around high over the law courts, the undersides of their wings shining as they wheeled. It was remarkable aerial performance for a groundlooker like me. Shelagh had seen the birds first. "Oh, look," she said, pointing up as we stood beside the Blindman Brewing stall. We had been talking with Nicola. "They're pelicans," Nicola said immediately. And then, after a second or two of considering the things above, she said: ...