We also see quite a few white pelicans on the various small reservoirs in our area. When I was a kid and read the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House" books, I was both fascinated and disgusted by her telling of her father shooting a pelican and bringing it home to be butchered for food. The beak of the dead bird was full of decaying fish, and the family's reaction to the sight quickly changed their minds about eating the pelican!

The most we sighted at one time is 18 - we still try to count them, but their white feathers blend together when sighted from afar and they are not easy to count! The Google search brings up the information that they are an endangered species; probably from loss of habitat would be my guess. I wonder where their local nests are?

In repsonding to my comments of a couple of days ago, Tom wonders if swallows enjoy the shifting air currents of a traffic intersection. That might be, but I used to wait for my morning bus to work at an intersection which had very little traffic. Yet on early summer mornings, the area was full of swallows. I wouldn't discount that they were savvy enough to spot the traffic signals and swoop around waiting for the air to swirl. I know that they are skilled at gobbling up small insects on the wing - that's why I see them in the late afternoon hours flying low over the water.

Mr Woodstock and I spent five weeks in Rome in 1990 (goodness, is it really that long ago?) and in the early evenings I would stand at the windows of our room and watch the air fill with swallows as they gobbled up dinner on the wing.

Blue herons and an occasional night heron summer over in our area, as well. Lots of mallard ducks and Canadian geese, most of them are year round residents. And about six weeks ago we saw a bald eagle perched on a high branch, watching the nearby water intently.