Young, Brown, Love (Part II: The Comic Tragedy)

If you haven’t read (and looked at the photos) of my last post, “Young, Brown, Love Part I: The Amorous” (clickable link), please STOP and take a look—Part II needs Part I’s history. 

AND, if you didn’t read (and look at the photos) of my January 6^th post, “Flying My Way” (clickable link), please STOP and take a look—the comic tragedy of this blog also needs that post’s history.

At the END (pun intended) of Part I of this story, I left off with those young Brown Pelican’s having progressed from the gentle love of bill caressing to the--well you know--this:

Now as mentioned, these two Brown Pelican’s completely ignored me, with my front-seat viewing, so involved were they with each other.  AND it was during their public display of affection that I looked away for a bit, to shoot the photos of the teenage Herring Gull, “Flying My Way”.

In fact, if you look closely at that post’s photos, you’ll note the teenage Herring Gull goes from flying over, to looking downward as if spotting something of interest:

I couldn’t believe it!  This feathered teenager (the Herring) sighted what this ol’ human was staring at:  Young, Brown, Love! 

The Herring quickly and quietly dropped and landed on an outcropping of “rock”, even closer to the two young lovers than I.  And yes, I kid you not, in this next photo of the Herring Gull, he is looking up at the two Brown Pelican’s as they continued the “billing” and gentle caressing of pre-mating behavior.

 

The look of a teenager watching some serious public display of affection:

The beauty of these young Brown lovers held the Herring and me transfixed!  

AND, just like me, the Herring was absolutely still and quiet—and the lovers progressed to the “position” of the first photo, with the female Brown giving more than a subtle invitation to the male Brown.

And why did I leave you with this “position” in Part I?  Why was the female waiting, and waiting? 

Well, just like that—the quiet solitude that the two Brown Pelicans thought was theirs was tragically interrupted by a convoy of White Pelicans, coming in to check out the “goings on” of the Browns.

And so begins the comic tragedy of this tale.  The next photo will share the close proximity of the Herring Gull to the Browns, as the White Pelicans approach.  

AND it also shows the blurry image of the young male Brown Pelican, suddenly distracted, looking in the direction of the incoming White Pelicans.  This was the first “look away” by the male Brown, forgetting at that moment the “position” of his female love.

BUT even MORE telling as a comic tragedy, look at what the first White Pelican is “eyeing”—and how the teenage Herring Gull takes note of this look:

And so all quiet was ended by THAT White Pelican coveting thy neighbor’s “rock” rather than showing any interest in the young, brown, love!  The White Pelican flapped a threat to the Herring, and the Herring flew away:

And what did this White Pelican do?  You betcha—the White made a rather public statement of claiming the perch on the “rock”, complete with one of those male-oriented “scratches”:

Now can I remind you of the female’s position (with her backside in the direction of this raucous side show)?  Well, bless her heart, she finally had ENOUGH of waiting! And so she moved back into an “upright” position, but not leaving her love. 

And I swear—I mean I SWEAR—the young Brown male looked over at me with that look of “Oh god, I’m feeling nervous; I think I blew it; what should I do now?”

Well, I knew to keep my mouth shut!  The female Brown took what I’ll call “appropriate” action.  She let out that familiar LOUD squawk of an exasperated female, feathered or human kind (we all know the sound of an exasperated female, not happy with WHATEVER is making her NOT happy). 

The squawk caused the White Pelicans to fly away with no subtle procrastination—I was so fixated on the female Brown that I missed their departing flight with my lens!

And then comes the tragic climax!  The young female Brown punctuated her exasperated squawk by taking her left wing and giving her young male lover a good whack to his front side.  I’m not sure how hard her left hook actually landed, but it put him in his place:  and he too departed!  

This photo caught the end of her verbalization and her left hook:

And so the story ends as it started in Part 1.  A beautiful young female Brown Pelican filled my lens.  Only this time, she really was alone.  

I quietly did what we women-folk do:  I shared a few empathizing and supportive words.

And then I too took my leave.  

I have the feeling that these two young lovers were not separated too long.  And one day, they may have quite a story of young love, for their grandchildren.