It is midday. I am 2000' over Gosford on the Central Coast flying the Robin back from Bankstown. The sun is starting to break out after a week of rainy overcast. I have just flow through the last of the showers as I crossed Broken Bay, looking down at the fine Thursday yachts moving in and around its mazey inlets. I am over the urban sprawl looking north when against a forest background, straight ahead there sharp and precise movement towards me, slightly below, white against dark green, slightly below. It speeds as it approaches and it looks like a pair of fighters - left lead forward, wingman tight behind and to the lead's right. Astonished I stare and make sure we are not on a collision course. Radio controlled models???!!! The are only 100 or so feet below me and to my right as I roll hard to the right to continue to stare. PELICANS!! as they break into sharp focus. Not a hint of a wing beat that would normally give away their avian identity. Tight gliding formation on an arrow straight course south towards Brisbane Waters. Are they setting me up and laughing?
My camera is on the shelf behind me as I turn tightly back towards them, then dismiss the thought as unlikely to capture anything near the beaauty of the moment, assuming I can catch them, keep them in sight while turning the camera on, fly the plane into a good position and not get a blurred shot. Hold the vivid look of their black and white plumage, their slightly tilted upwards faces - long bills pointing straight ahead, and wings rigidly perpendicular to their bodies.
I love birds.
(Photo from www.nioc.fsnet.co.uk/intermediate04.htm prize winner Ray Bennet)
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