By Morgan McBride (age 10)
We arrived at our house on Ocracoke Island on Sunday July 6. My dad and I unpacked the car. While we were climbing the stairs with the last bag from the car, I saw something moving on the rocks. At first, I saw one pelican…then I got closer and saw two more. They did not fly away when I walked onto the rocks to get a better view. It looked like they were watching something. My dad went to the front of the house and saw what they were watching…a baby pelican! Actually, I think it was a yearling. He had mostly white feathers and I named him Arthur. We discovered that it was a pelican family and they were living under the deck. They did not fly, but hopped from rock to rock and followed Arthur as he was trying to spread his wings. We think that Hurricane Arthur’s winds blew the pelicans onto our property. We watched them for two days, and then on the third day, we saw that Arthur was missing. I looked for him, and saw that he had hopped along the rocks to another house where there were small kids who didn’t know how to be gentle with a baby pelican. My dad went and tried to get Arthur into the water, so he’d hop or swim back to our house. I herded Arthur to where his parents were. The next day, the mom, dad and Arthur were gone. I think Arthur learned to fly. Now there are two adult pelicans living under our deck. Maybe it is Arthur’s mom & dad!
This is a true story.
