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Why “Pelican Yoga?”

To discover this blog’s intent and scope, please click the “about” prompt, above.

As to the name….

One 2015 West Australian spring day my beloved and I were at Guilderton, a little less than 100 kilometres north of Perth.

It’s where the Moore River meets the Indian Ocean; or – to be more truthful, these last three decades – for most of the time, it is where the Moore River nearly meets the ocean.

Only occasionally – and nowadays, mostly for only a matter of days – does the river break through the sandbar at its mouth.

We just happened to be there on the day this happened.

A tannin-dark stain extended from the river mouth into the otherwise-blue ocean.

Two pelicans sat, still, on the sand beside the rarely-rushing rivermouth.

Suddenly –  in the “rarely is this mouth open so very wide” department – one pelican outdid the Moore River.

The second pelican remained immobile and did not in any way react.

I scrambled for my camera; to my amazement, the first bird remained “wide open” for circa 90 seconds, before resuming “normal” position.

(the photo is my own – please do not steal it; if you wish to use one of my original images, please refer to above “contact, submitting items for review” prompt)

National Geographic source was just one of several which later explained that we had witnessed a form of “pelican yoga”.

The key paragraph says:
Pelicans perform strange-looking exercises to stretch and maintain their pouch in a brand of pelican yoga. They will gape, holding their mouths wide open. In another pose, they point the bill straight up to the sky, stretching the pouch. Or most evocatively, a bird will turn its pouch completely inside out by forcing it over its breast.

I have since asked many other people if they have witnessed this; to date, only two have replied “yes”.

Pelican Yoga is all about wonderful things which too many people miss – wonderful things which are not driven by fads, fashion or commercial calculation.

At least one future post will be devoted to the Moore River…and although this is really not a pelican-centric blog, it will sometimes host more of these remarkable birds.

Published in nature and travel photographs Western Australia

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