A Rhyming Romance

by Shel Silverstein

Said the pelican to the elephant,

I think we should marry, I do.

Cause there's no name that rhymes with me,

And no one else rhymes with you.

Said the elephant to the pelican,

There's sense to what you've said,

For rhyming's as good a reason as any

For any two to wed.

And so the elephant wed the pelican,

And they dined upon lemons and limes,

And now they have a baby pelicant,

And everybody rhymes.

elephants on etsy and eBay
pelicans on etsy and eBay

Pelicant

The Pelican

by Shel Silverstein

Pickin' big fish from the seas

The pelican can do with ease

But pickin' up a tiny ant

Is something that a pelicant.

 

Pelicans on eBay

Pelicans on etsy

Love is Grand But...

by Shel Silverstein

Miz Pelican said she loved me,

And to show how much she cared,

She let me set inside her beak

And took me flyin' everywhere.

But then - below - she spied a fish

And dove - and let me fall - cr-unch,

As she whispered, "Love is grand,

But lunch, my dear, is lunch.

 Fall in love with a pelican here. (Bring lunch.)

What Rhymes with Pelican?

A Pelican

by Jack Prelutsky

A pelican uses its steam-shovel bill
to gather more fish than can possibly fill
its pelican belly.

It's not out of greed . . .
that bill is a trough where young pelicans feed.

A CHARMed pelican Rookery can be found here.

We're Pelican Grandparents!

Last year, after the Gulf Oil spill, I did a benefit bracelet and earrings  to help with pelican rescue.  We sent the money to Tri-State Bird rescue and hoped for the best, faced with a dismal mess.

Last week, I got an email from Tri-State bird rescue with some very happy news:

Over a year since Tri-State traveled to the gulf coast to rehabilitate thousands of oiled birds, there is living proof that a new generation of wildlife is benefiting from our work.


The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has been tracking a group of rehabilitated brown pelicans released on Little Egg Island Bar, a state-protected wildlife area. Biologists have encountered a pleasant surprise - seventeen pelican chicks in eight nests. Each has at least one parent that was rehabilitated and released from the oil spill.


Each nest has 2-3 chicks nestling up to its parent until it is old enough to survive on its own. Georgia DNR has banded some of the chicks in order to continue to track them as they mature.

How do they know?
The birds are easy to identify. Each oiled bird that was rehabilitated and released received a brightly colored leg band. A bright red band can be seen on the pictured pelican's left leg (below).






Why is this significant?
Tri-State was founded in 1976 to study the effects of oil on wildlife and develop protocols to treat affected animals. We were pioneers in oiled wildlife rehabilitation, working with DuPont to quantify what detergents work best to remove oil from feathers. Tri-State has contributed thirty-five years of experience and research to the professional rehabilitation of oiled wildlife. The days of scrubbing birds in bath tubs has evolved into a science and the rehabilitation process integrates veterinary medicine as well as wildlife conservation principles.


Though there is research showing the positive long-term benefits of oiled bird rehabilitation, it is images like this that are simple reminders of our important work on behalf of wildlife everywhere.

Above you see a brown pelican and her young. What makes this bird so special? One year after enduring being coated by thick, sticky oil, she is once again living in the natural world -- and brooding babies of her own!


So today's new charm is to celebrate.

These pelicans are available here and here.

The Pelican Chorus

by Edward Lear

King 
and Queen of the Pelicans, we; 
No other Birds so grand we see!

None but we have feet like fins!

With lovely leathery throats and chins!

        Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

        We think no Birds so happy as we!

        Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

        We think so then, and we thought so still! 


We 
live on the Nile. The Nile we love.

By night we sleep on the cliffs above;

By day we fish, and at eve we stand

On long bare islands of yellow sand.

And when the sun sinks slowly down

And the great rock walls grow dark and brown,

Where the purple river rolls fast and dim

And the Ivory Ibis starlike skim,

Wing to wing we dance around,--

Stamping our feet with a flumpy sound,--

Opening our mouths as Pelicans ought,

And this is the song we nighly snort;--

        Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
        
    We think no Birds so happy as we!

        Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

        We think so then, and we thought so still! 


Last
year came out our daughter, Dell;

And all the Birds received her well.

To do her honour, a feast we made

For every bird that can swim or wade.

Herons and Gulls, and Cormorants black,

Cranes, and flamingoes with scarlet back,

Plovers and Storks, and Geese in clouds,

Swans and Dilberry Ducks in crowds.

Thousands of Birds in wondrous flight!

They ate and drank and danced all night,

And echoing back from the rocks you heard

Multitude-echoes from Bird to bird,--

        Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

        We think no Birds so happy as we!

        Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

        We think so then, and we thought so still! 


Yes,
they came; and among the rest,

The King of the Cranes all grandly dressed.

Such a lovely tail! Its feathers float

between the ends of his blue dress-coat;

With pea-green trowsers all so neat,

And a delicate frill to hide his feet,--

(For though no one speaks of it, every one knows,

He has got no webs between his toes!) 


As
soon as he saw our Daughter Dell,

In violent love that Crane King fell,--

On seeing her waddling form so fair,

With a wreath of shrimps in her short white hair.

And before the end of the next long day,

Our Dell had given her heart away;

For the King of the Cranes had won that heart,

With a Crocodile's egg and a large fish-tart.

She vowed to marry the King of the Cranes,

Leaving the Nile for stranges plains;

And away they flew in a gathering crowd

Of endless birds in a lengthening cloud.

        Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

        We think no Birds so happy as we!

        Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

        We think so then, and we thought so still! 


And
far away in the twilight sky,

We heard them singing a lessening cry,--

Farther and farther till out of sight,

And we stood alone in the silent night!

Often since, in the nights of June,

We sit on the sand and watch the moon;--

She has gone to the great Gromboolian plain,

And we probably never shall meet again!

Oft, in the long still nights of June,

We sit on the rocks and watch the moon;--

----She dwells by the streams of the Chankly Bore,

And we probably never shall see her more.

        Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

        We think no Birds so happy as we!

        Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

        We think so then, and we thought so still! 
 

Dell and the Crane King here.