Day at the beach, great wildlife & a sad encounter
On Sunday, the weather FINALLY got a bit better and the sun came out. It was raining quite a lot these days. August and September are supposed to be drier months, but because of climate change, things are becoming unpredictable. We've had big storms and heavy rainfall, almost non-stop these past days.
So when the sun finally came out I was really happy. I miss going to the beach. My dog misses it even more apparently, she goes crazy when she gets into the car and can't stop crying from excitement in anticipation of all the running and swimming.
We saw a lot of birds this time around, but one of those encounters was rather sad. We found a pelican who seemed to be sick or injured. He was resting on the beach, and had a hard time flying away. I couldn't find anything wrong with him externally, so he must have been ill or have some sort of an internal injury.
My theory is (and I hope I'm wrong!) that he probably swallowed plastic over the course of his life and came to the beach to die. This happens a lot with birds who feed from the ocean, all thanks to the reckless actions of us Humans. They confuse plastic bags and objects with fish and swallow them whole. This causes their poor little stomachs to fill up with trash that cannot be digested, and they die painfully. Of course I'm just speculating with this bird, and I hope I'm wrong....
The rest of the day was fun though, so not all gloomy =)
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
Dammit it makes me sick to think of this happening. I have my little one happy about not buying water in plastic bottles and asking us to not by straws anymore. I guess changing the world for the better happens in small steps.
Maybe it had lived a long life of freedom and awesome bird mating and was just coming in to store up some energy for one last party?
yeah it's sad! I hope you're right, and the bird was just old, and his time came to an end....I like your theory better than mine =)
Here too things are improving! They just prohibited plastic straws and plastic take-away containers here, so we're moving int the right direction (after we screwed everything up for years LOL)
Aww... the beach was so beautiful and isolated - just like I love it! Reminded me of Playa Negra outside of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica... very similar :) But then... the poor pelican appeared and it ruined the video for me :( We often spent hours just sitting on the beach in Mexico and watching pelicans fishing and flying over our heads... so majestic birds! I am afraid your suspicion might well be right Eve... I recently saw a really great and eye-opening documentary that I wrote about in this post https://steemit.com/film/@phortun/a-plastic-ocean-documentary-that-everyone-should-see and eating (too much) plastic really is a very common cause of death in sea birds... I can see the light in the tunnel though - more and more countries from all over the world have been changing their "plastic policy" recently... We just have to do what we can and inspire others... like, for example, you guys do ;)
I saw that documentary =(. It's very sad...sorry to share a sad experience here, but unfortunately it's the reality.....here things are getting better too! We got plastic bags banned in supermarkets, and now on September 1st they also banned plastic straws and take-away containers, so as you say, there is light at the end of the tunnel =)
There you go! Awesome news :) There is the light at the end of the tunnel for sure ;)
It ruins my day when I see something like that, how sad. We watched a documentary called " A Plastic Ocean" the other day and it was definitely an eye opener. I knew things were bad, but I didn't realise how bad. Its worth watching.
yes that's the documentary @phortun was talking about. Sorry for posting something sad...It wasn't my attention to film an animal in distress, but he was right there in front of me...
Oh, whoops! I didn't read his comment, sorry fo repeating the same thing.
ah no worries! The more people mention it, the better!t's a must see!
That first song <3 I love that you don’t have to worry about copyright stuff like on YouTube on here
thanks @earthling-saul! I actually always wonder about that when I edit my videos...I hope I won't get in trouble lol. I try to do it with free music, but I just never find any nice tracks
great & impressive
Even sea salt is testing positive for micro plastics now ☹️