Pelican

• The great white pelican catches about 1.2 kg of fish a day in its large throat pouch.
• The brown pelican dives from a height of 15 m above the water to catch fish below below the surface. 
• There are seven species of pelican. Most live and feed around fresh water, but the brown pelican is a seabird.
• A great white pelican comes in to land on the water.
• One of the largest pelicans is the Australian pelican, which is up to 180 cm long and weighs about 15 kg.
• The white pelican lays 1-2 eggs in a nest mound on the ground. Both parents help to incubate the eggs and care for the young.
• Pelican chicks are able to stand at 3 weeks old and can fly at 7-10 weeks old.
• White pelicans work as a group to herd fish into a shoal by swimming around them in a horseshoe formation. 
• In flight, a pelican flaps its wings 1.3 times a second. This is one of the slowest wingbeat speeds, when actively flying, of any bird.

Hope is the thing with feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

-Emily Dicksinson