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)

A 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.