James The Young Brown Pelican by Bob Kranich

James The Young Brown Pelican
 by Bob Kranich

(Excerpt 4)

This is a new story. We are first introduced to James the young Brown pelican, and a young fellow who is sketching him on the docks of Key West. James is now going to do some soaring and go up the Keys. He is about to meet a strange White pelican.

“Thanks Grandpa,” James said as he beat his wings, gave a push off and up with his webbed feet and instantly rose up and away from the salt pond.

I will fly a few miles up the Keys…. maybe I’ll go up to Big Pine Key. Let’s see what I can hear from other pelicans about a storm. Also I want to think about this faith stuff.

This time he beat his wings slowly but forcefully as he gained altitude. He sure liked it up high. It wasn’t too long before he could see the string of Keys heading east northeast. In fact he could see Big Pine Key a few miles up ahead.

He didn’t see or feel anything strange about the weather. Maybe Grandfather was wrong. It had been some time since he had been up this way. This is the Key that has the little deer, he thought. Looking down he saw a quiet, smooth, sandy beach. He circled the area one time, keeping a sharp eye out for predators along the tree line just up from the beach. Big Pine Key was one of the largest Keys and it had a lot of small pine trees and other vegetation on it.
“Looks OK,” he said out loud and swooped down and landed. It was quiet, except for a cormorant, a couple of gulls floating lazily on the water, and a few sand crabs scurrying about on the beach.

Suddenly James was startled by a large white pelican landing right in front of him.

“Hey bird! What’s happenin’?”

James was looking at a mature white adult, in fact a pretty sharp looking one!

“What ya doin’? What’s your name?” The white bird was jovial.

James didn’t know what to make of all this.

“Ah...ah, my name’s James,” James stammered. “You...you aren’t from around here, are you? I’ve never seen a white pelican.”

“Nope, I’m down from the Outer Banks, North Carolina. Kill Devil Hills to be exact. It’s my working area.”

“I don’t know where that is,” James stated.

“Don’t know where that is! Where you been all your life? Oh, now I see, you're a young'un. It is up the Atlantic Coast, about 1000 miles.”

“Oh dear me, I forgot my manners, My name’s Sam, ‘Smilin’ Sam’ to be exact. Just call me Smilin’ for short.

Nice to meet you James.”

“Nice to meet you too, Smilin’. What are you doing down here on the Keys?” James asked.

“James, I like to move around, learn about everything. Of course sometimes I’m sent places. So I decided to vacation down this way, kind of check out the Keys. Is this your island? I mean Key. What is this place?”

“No,” James answered, “I’m from about 40 miles farther down. It’s called Key West.”

“Oh yeah, I want to go there....always wanted to see it. In fact I may go even farther. I’ve heard that Cuba is only a short 90 mile flight!”

“Gee, I don’t even know about that,” James confessed.

“Don’t worry, you're young, you’ve got a lot of liv’n yet to do. By the way, what brings you over here from Key West?”

From The Author:

“James the Young Brown Pelican” is a fictional story of a young Brown pelican. He is dissatisfied with the pelican’s normal way of life, just looking for fish and eating. He wants to so something else with his life. He is excited about flying high and a speedy dive. This is a Christian book about faith and you will learn more about the life of pelicans. Since the Brown pelican is found along both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, you will also learn about the pelican’s life in the Florida Keys and Key West itself.

The book is illustrated by watercolors, sketches, and photos, to include many photos by the great nature photographer, Ron Reznick.