Steve’s Bird Of The Day #54.

Hi everyone and here we are with today’s bird, the “American white pelican”. These are huge birds with a 10 foot (about 3 meter) wingspan and are much larger than a bald eagle. They are actually among the heaviest flying birds in the world. They mainly nest on shallow lakes and marshes in the center of the continent, both in the US and Canada. But their range is steadily increasing east in the Great Lakes. Our lake was the only lake in Ontario where they would breed at one time, but along with the Great Lakes, at least 2 other lakes in NW Ontario now have breeding populations. Some people don’t like them because it has been long thought that white pelicans eat sport fish, but this is totally wrong. Most of their diet is fish of no importance for sport fishing such as carp and suckers. Breeding adults grow a unique “horn” or “sail” on their upper bill. Pelicans don’t carry food in their pouch, it is always swallowed before flying. They are majestic fliers and can soar high for long periods of time. These pelicans don’t dive, but rather dabble in shallow water for food. They will often get together to drive schools of fish into shallow water where they can easily scoop them up. They winter mainly along coastal areas.

Here you can see the “horn” on the bird in the foreground.

Thanks for reading, have a great day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.

The Investigators, Inc. Nowhere. Chapter 8.

I’m sitting on the chair with a sore head and a lump on my forehead where Mr. Cat had hit me with his hard rubber ball. And that wasn’t even full strength. Lena had made us some tea and the cats were having a snack too. “Okay,” I said, “it’s time to do some serious talking here. Before it was Baldwin I wanted to kill, now it was you Lena, but why? Is there something you’re not telling me?” “No Steve,” she said, “I’m not holding anything back at all, I really don’t understand why anyone would want me killed. It makes no sense.” I look over at the cats. Meow,meow=I say she tell truth, not holding back anything. Meow.=I agree with Muffin.

I say Lena telling truth.

“Sorry Lena,” I said, “but these cats have to be my memory and my present thinking until I’m back to normal.” “That’s okay Steve,” she said with a smile, “I understand that.” “Now, I can understand someone wanting to kill Baldwin, he has likely made some enemies over the years, even if he does things properly,” I said, “but right now I don’t feel anything at all concerning killing him or you. Something must trigger these reactions and…that’s it! Both times it happened was when I was holding a gun. Could seeing or holding a gun cause such a reaction?” “I don’t know if that’s possible, unless you were hypnotized,” said Lena, “but that seems really fast to hypnotize you in such a manner. Still, I don’t know anything about that anyway, so maybe it’s possible. And that probe might have been there to accelerate the process. This is all very strange and why kill me?”

Meow,meow=To frame my human for murder, someone do that before, her name Gisela. “Hey, that’s right,” said Lena, “that was just recently when Linnea hired you to help her clear up some strange things that were happening at her new chateau.” Unfortunately as they continued talking, none of this helped me at all, I still could not remember any of it. But I still think that the answer lies here in Germany somehow. “This is where things started, so this is where we need to start looking,” I said, “although I have no idea what to look for or how to even start. And the name Gisela means nothing to me.” Meow?=How about name of Karl? “Still nothing Mr. Cat,” I said. Meow?=Maybe Katharina” They all look at me, I’m just sitting there staring straight ahead.

I agree with Muffin, she tell truth.

Meow,meow.=Oh, my human not look right, something wrong. Lena waved her hand in front of me, but no reaction from me at all. She even shook me gently, but still nothing. Meow.=Maybe we bite legs, that work for anything. “Give it a try you two,” said Lena. So they did. Chomp! Chomp! “AAAAA!!!! Why did you do that?”, I said, rubbing my legs. Meow,meow.=Yep, always work good. Meow.=You go funny like, just stare. “Yes,” said Lena, “I even shook you and you just kept staring.” “Hmm, that is rather odd,” I said, “but what triggered such a reaction, and why?” Meow,meow=It happen when Mr.Cat mention certain name of person we sent to jail long time ago.

“Hey, maybe we should check on her and see if she is still in jail,” said Lena. So she called Rossana and Muffin meowed to her in Italian so I wouldn’t understand and she never had to use the name of the person, Rossana remembered right away. It didn’t take long and Rossana called back, but this person and her parents were still safely in prison. This is really starting to bother me. We continue to talk over previous cases but I still remember nothing. Lena whispers to Muffin and Mr. Cat and they move to different parts of the room. Then she gives me the gun again. I look at it. Pictures, people, come to mind, but nothing is clear, just like a dream. Suddenly I drop the gun, “my head, feels like it will explode!”, I yelled. Lena quickly grabbed the gun. Then I put my head down and ran for the window.

This not going good, must be way to bring back my human’s remembering.

It caught everyone by surprise and there was no time to stop me as I crashed through the glass! We were on the second floor. Lena ran to the window. I lay motionless on the ground as people started to gather. I open my eyes, the room is bright, Lena is there holding my hand and the cats are on the bed with me. Lena explained, how I jumped out the window and I’m now in the hospital. Surprisingly there were no broken bones, just a sprained wrist, cuts and bruises, and a lot of pain in my back. It’s the next afternoon. The head doctor here had done an MRI and found that probe still in my brain, so he removed it. Lena showed it to me. Apparently it wasn’t a big deal to remove after all. Those other doctors were all in on this too. We talked a bit. I still can’t remember. I’m still nowhere…and scared.

To Be Continued.

Pictures of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.

Previous chapters of this story and previous stories can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.” and “20/20 Investigations, Inc.”

©2021 Steve McLeod.