Ed the Pelican

From letter, probably written in late 1953

Ed the pelican really is part of the family now. He has learned to swim, goes all over the bayou and even around the island to the bay, but he always comes back in an hour or so.

He has a roost outside the screen cage beyond the living room. He roosts there most nights, sometimes on the tool shed, sometimes on the lawnmower, and sometimes just on the back step, where he squawks madly whenever anyone walks into the laundry room. He divides his time among the roost, the corner of the house by the big double jalousies between the kitchen and living room (where he squawks at us and pecks at the glass to remind us it is his mealtime if we forget), and the carport.

Ed “patrols” the front of the house sometimes, and I’ve considered putting up a sign, “Drive Slowly…Pelican Crossing.”

To anyone not expecting him, Ed is something of a shock. He tend to rush madly at anyone he sees, squawking and half-flying.

 

Children’s story, probably written in late 1953

The Peculiar Pet

Once upon a time…as long ago as last week, because this is a very true story…a little boy and a little girl had a very strange and wonderful pet. This pet was named Ed, even though he was not a “he” but a “she” pet. Ed was a baby pelican, but because she was as large as a full-grown goose, it was hard to realize how young she was.

When Ed came to live with Alex and Carli, their mommy and daddy explained that she was a wild bird and might not want to stay. Ed was timid at first. She crouched wild-eyed, with her tail feathers trembling, when the children gently scratched her head.

Soon she realized that they wanted to be friends and would waddle up along side of them and crouch down, weaving her head back and forth on her long neck, inviting them to scratch her.

The first day Ed lived at the children’s house, Daddy had to feed her by hand. He held Ed’s long beak and tossed small pieces of raw fish into her pouch. Then Daddy tilted Ed’s bill up into the air and rubbed her long neck gently until the fish slid down it. The children would watch the lumps of fish travel all the way down until they disappeared into Ed’s plump body.

After feeding Ed, Daddy put the young pelican outside the screened-in yard. The children watched Ed waddle across the driveway and disappear into a clump of mangrove near the bayou’s edge. They waved goodbye and called to her to visit them tomorrow.

The next morning as Carli and Alex were grading a road in the sandbox with Alex’s big construction machines, they heard a high squawk outside the play-yard gate. Alex ran to open the gate and in waddled Ed, flapping her wings and saying thank you in pelican language. She stepped awkwardly up onto a corner of the sandbox and perched there quietly, watching the children as they continued their work.

At noon, when the sandbox road was completed, Mommy called the children for lunch. They ran into the house. No one noticed Ed jump down from her perch. She waddled after them flapping her wings and taking little hops as she hurried.

Mommy just had served the children their lunch when a sudden “Awwwk” sounded behind her. She jumped straight up into the air and made a noise herself, which sounded very much like “Eeeek!” She turned around and burst out laughing when she saw Ed trying to tell her how hungry she was. Her wings were waving wildly; her head was weaving from side to side; and she was making hollow, snapping noises with her long bill.

Mommy took some fish from the refrigerator. She cut it into small pieces…grown-up pelicans eat whole fish at one gulp, but Ed was just a baby…and coaxed Ed out to the yard to eat. This time Mommy tossed the pieces of fish to the ground one by one. Ed pounced on each, picking it up with the sharp hook at the end of her bill, tossing it into the air, and catching it in her pouch. She flapped her big wings with each bite and snapped her bill noisily several times, tossing the morsel of fish around in her pouch. Then she threw her head back and the bit of fish slithered down her stretched-out neck.

After her dinner, Ed wandered back into the house to explore. But when Mommy found her poking her long neck into the closet, she shooed her into the yard again. Ed perched happily on her corner of the sandbox and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. Daddy put Ed outside the yard that evening and she returned to her roost in the mangrove for the night.

Every day after that, Ed appeared early in the morning. She loved company. She followed the children around as they played. She took naps whenever she felt like it. Once she startled one of Mommy’s bridge-club ladies right out from under her prettiest party hat when she woke up yawning and stretching her wings, practically under the lady’s feet in the front hall.

One day when Daddy was watering the lawn, Ed ran squawking into the spray from the hose. She snapped at the stream of water with her big bill, making happy little noises as the drops trickled down her throat. She turned round and round under the spray, flicking her feathers and twitching her tail in delight. After that, Alex and Carli gave Ed a shower every day. If they forgot about it, Ed would waddle over to the hose and peck at it to remind them.

For a while Ed had green feet. Daddy was painting the boat and Ed, who couldn’t bear to be left out of any family activity, flew up to perch on the newly-painted deck.

Ed still lives with Alex and Carli. She is older now and can catch her own fish for dinner, swimming in the bayou in front of their house. Although she flies off sometimes, she likes to spend part of her mornings watching the children play. She still sneaks into the house when Mommy isn’t looking. She still takes baths in the garden hose. And she is fonder than ever of having Alex and Carli scratch her head.

If you ever should happen to be in Florida in the city where Alex and Carli live, and if you should happen to drive out the little road and across the stone bridge to their tiny island, you could scratch Ed’s head, too.