The Barbados Pelican

14Oct06

The pelican is Barbados’ national bird, appearing on the Coat-of-Arms. Yet i have never in my life seen a live pelican in Barbados. When i got the newspaper this week i was delighted to see one on the front page and thought that the Nation photographer must be very lucky indeed. That the Nation felt the pelican deserved the front page shows that i’m not the only one who thought it a little strange that one almost never sees our national bird.

The first time i saw a pelican it flew right over my head as i was standing on the pier in Buenaventura, Colombia, having just returned from a jolting boat ride to the beach. As the small wooden boat bounced up and down on the water and rocked violently from side-to-side like some hair-raising amusement park ride (minus the safety precuations) i watched the other passengers, whom i assumed had experienced such rides before, clutch rosaries and mutter inaudible prayers. Meanwhile i thought about how horrible it must be to die by drowning.

A few days after the pelican appears on the frontpage there’s a follow up story about it having been injured, its wing broken, by a schoolboy’s stone. All i can say is that the elusive Barbados Pelican is wise not to show its face too often on our shores.

UPDATE: The pelican subsequently died.

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