Sultry morning with coffee on the beach. Pelicans glide and rise and circle and dive. Silhouette shapes mirrored on the windless Sea of Cortez. Sometimes rising from up from their dive with a fish in their gullet, more often not. They float for a bit, then as if in formation, then take off clumsily, one at a time, glide inches from the water’s surface, circle upward, eyes pinned on the water below, and dive again searching their breakfast. The flap flap of their wings echoes across the bay. Bait fish ruffle the water at the seas edge. A night heron stalks on long stilt-like legs.

I sip cooling coffee, it’s deep roast flavor a pleasure in my mouth. The air almost steamy. Summer is upon us.