Whirlybirds
On my way home from school the other day I saw something funny and cool. It seems a little weird to be saying that yet again "...on my way home from school..." but there it is.
I've been trying all the different ways to get to school and come home. Because of the construction projects related to the 2010 olympics, (ie: the Canada Line) this town is frickin' impossible to get around in during the day. Especially when you're trying to get crosstown which always sucked to begin with. So I've been experimenting with all the different possible routes and when the best times are to take them. For example, "stay the hell away from Cambie at all times." That's an easy one I know but I've got lots more. "Clark is full of slow moving trucks in the morning and traffic is always heavy with people heading down Powell to downtown." That's another example. You can see that I have a lot to think about in the morning commute. Keeps me from the road rage y'know.
One of my routes home is to head straight down Main St. to Cordova and then east from there. It's not a good route all the time but can be fast at certain times of the day. It's also not the most picturesque drive either as it takes me through the downtown eastside. Have you been by Oppenheimer park lately? Looks like the remnants of a big concert festival or party. Or if it was a holding station for refugees. There must've been a hundred people in the park the other afternoon when I went by with little encampments set up all over. It seemed very tribal and backward.
Anyway, that's not what I thought was funny and cool, I'm getting to that.
As I headed along Powell I approached the Clark St. overpass that takes you into the Port of Vancouver. I noticed a truck, a dumptruck almost, heading over the overpass absolutely engulfed in seagulls. The strange thing was they moved with the truck as if they were all locked in a bubble together. All the birds flapping their wings in tandem, keeping the exact same speed as the truck. The dude driving either didn't know or didn't care that he was a moving bird magnet as he had his window down and his arm casually resting on the sill while a few feet above him was this roiling mass of movement. Not only were the birds in flight, the rim of the truck's dumper was lined with seagulls too. And some of the ones flying would try and land and get on board with the others which looked very odd with their skinny little legs running along trying to find some place to grip on the steel. I had to keep moving but I watched the truck disappear over the rise and then come around the turn down lower a few moments later still engulfed. The birds never went more then a few feet away from the truck the whole time. They were glued to that thing. I see the seagulls all the time by the fisheries company out in front of our place but I've never seen them do this. It looked amazing. And goofy. It might be nice to know just what was in that truck but then maybe I don't want to know.
It reminded me of when I was in Greece in 1996. We were taking a ferry from Corfu to Igoumenitsa (I think, might have to consult my notes on that) and it was early morning with the sun in the cloudless sky and the water as flat as glass. We passed by a number of these neat little islands that were basically just different sized rocks in the water. As we went by one of them I could see this huge mass of birds flying around it. It looked like a slow moving tornado as the birds circled in a clump, spiraling around and around. It looked like how schools of fish look when you see them in those underwater films. You know, before the sharks come and eat them in a flurry of violence that lets the narrator calmly explain that this is how mother nature works. Anyway, seagulls are usually annoying and on my general shit list (and my car is apparently on theirs) but they did transfix me that day.
I've been trying all the different ways to get to school and come home. Because of the construction projects related to the 2010 olympics, (ie: the Canada Line) this town is frickin' impossible to get around in during the day. Especially when you're trying to get crosstown which always sucked to begin with. So I've been experimenting with all the different possible routes and when the best times are to take them. For example, "stay the hell away from Cambie at all times." That's an easy one I know but I've got lots more. "Clark is full of slow moving trucks in the morning and traffic is always heavy with people heading down Powell to downtown." That's another example. You can see that I have a lot to think about in the morning commute. Keeps me from the road rage y'know.
One of my routes home is to head straight down Main St. to Cordova and then east from there. It's not a good route all the time but can be fast at certain times of the day. It's also not the most picturesque drive either as it takes me through the downtown eastside. Have you been by Oppenheimer park lately? Looks like the remnants of a big concert festival or party. Or if it was a holding station for refugees. There must've been a hundred people in the park the other afternoon when I went by with little encampments set up all over. It seemed very tribal and backward.
Anyway, that's not what I thought was funny and cool, I'm getting to that.
As I headed along Powell I approached the Clark St. overpass that takes you into the Port of Vancouver. I noticed a truck, a dumptruck almost, heading over the overpass absolutely engulfed in seagulls. The strange thing was they moved with the truck as if they were all locked in a bubble together. All the birds flapping their wings in tandem, keeping the exact same speed as the truck. The dude driving either didn't know or didn't care that he was a moving bird magnet as he had his window down and his arm casually resting on the sill while a few feet above him was this roiling mass of movement. Not only were the birds in flight, the rim of the truck's dumper was lined with seagulls too. And some of the ones flying would try and land and get on board with the others which looked very odd with their skinny little legs running along trying to find some place to grip on the steel. I had to keep moving but I watched the truck disappear over the rise and then come around the turn down lower a few moments later still engulfed. The birds never went more then a few feet away from the truck the whole time. They were glued to that thing. I see the seagulls all the time by the fisheries company out in front of our place but I've never seen them do this. It looked amazing. And goofy. It might be nice to know just what was in that truck but then maybe I don't want to know.
It reminded me of when I was in Greece in 1996. We were taking a ferry from Corfu to Igoumenitsa (I think, might have to consult my notes on that) and it was early morning with the sun in the cloudless sky and the water as flat as glass. We passed by a number of these neat little islands that were basically just different sized rocks in the water. As we went by one of them I could see this huge mass of birds flying around it. It looked like a slow moving tornado as the birds circled in a clump, spiraling around and around. It looked like how schools of fish look when you see them in those underwater films. You know, before the sharks come and eat them in a flurry of violence that lets the narrator calmly explain that this is how mother nature works. Anyway, seagulls are usually annoying and on my general shit list (and my car is apparently on theirs) but they did transfix me that day.
posted by Biggles at 10:06 PM
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