Interesting bird watching sight this morning

People who know me know that I'm a bird watcher and nature lover, so I'm always on the watch for birds and other animals and what they are up to. I didn't have to look too far this morning, as an amazing sight unfolded right in front of me, as I was driving my car back from the grocery store. Another thing that is cool is that I would have missed this sight if my regular newspaper box by my apartment had not let me down and refused to open, thus forcing me to drive to the store and do some early shopping.

There's a very pretty Presbyterian church being built and I drive by it to and from the store. Construction workers are doing a great job, and they work every day, including through the weekend. So I drove past it like normal on the way to the store and saw that they were busy. It's quite warm here (short sleeve and T shirt weather, I'm wearing a summer dress) as we've not yet gotten the cold front. So on my way back as I'm driving toward the church, here is what I see.

There is a huge flock of large white birds circling directly over the church! At first I was not sure what they were since I was still a bit of distance away, but as I got closer I realized that there were around one hundred and fifty pelicans! (They look white at a distance in the sun, but are actually brown pelicans.) Having my camera I pulled off onto the side of the road across from the church and watched with amusement. Despite these very large birds circling around right overhead, nary a construction worker spared them a glance, including the guy who was the most "exposed" as he was working on the roof! Heh heh heh. So this was a great vision of nature, and also an amusing human story. Would he look up? Nope, not even when I took a picture of him and the birds. They milled and circled over the church for about a minute or two and then they flew across the motorway and get this... they then started circling over the Catholic church!

They followed the same pattern, circling for a while and then moving on to another building of interest, near the boat launch on the river. They are year around residents here and common, but this was the first I'd seen them flock inland, and think it has to do with grouping together during the change of seasons. Very interesting.