As you cross over the causeway that connects Sanibel Island to the mainland (or "the continent", as some locals call it) one of the most magnificent sights is watching as brown pelicans skim over the water's surface. They are big birds-- their wingspan can reach seventy inches across--and yet they seem to fly effortlessly, gliding through the air with great ease.


Yesterday, twenty-one brown pelicans and eleven northern gannets were released here on the island in hopes that they might find a safer place to live. They had been covered with oil when they were found along the Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines. After being cleaned up and rehabilitated they were transported by plane to the area and then set free. According to the local newspaper, they are among the 1085 birds that had been rescued as of yesterday.


No one knows for sure if they will stay here, or fly back home. Brown pelicans it seems have a tendency to return to the place where they first took flight. One can only hope they will avoid getting re-entangled with the oil spill!


Pelicans, of course, are only following their instincts. And if they do return to familiar territory it can hardly be called a matter of poor judgement. Not so we human beings. True, sometimes we just act on instinct, but the reality is we are capable of making choices, for we have God-given free will.


So what choices will we make today? Will we learn from this disaster and choose to live in a different, more environmentally aware way? Will we change some of our wasteful habits? Or, will we simply return to the familiar?


The new pelican residents here on Sanibel may not have a real choice, but we do. Just a few months ago, in November 2009, brown pelicans, which had been threatened back in the first part of the twentieth century by the use of DDT, were finally taken off the endangered species list. Our choices will help determine whether or not they stay off .

(Photo Credit: Mike Baird, www.flikr.com/photos/mikebaird/66530017/)