Cleared for Take Off–April 11, 2013
The overnight filled with thunder and lightening and rain. Sweet, sweet rain, drenching the parched earth. The morning a stormy mess, and then clearing as quick as an instant. 
The sun is shining. The air cleansed. Not a cloud in the sky. And the pelican go to work, circling, diving, plunging, pausing. Lifting up out of the water, a short glide, circling, diving, plunging, pausing, they make their way across the lake.
Down by the marina, a Cattle Egret arrives.
Native to Africa and Asia, this bird only reached the United States in 1941. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in the last 50 years it has become the most abundant of North American heron and has been found all the way to Alaska and Newfoundland.
The scene and players are always changing.
