Birding Bond

RichardTheBruce

Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey: American-designed tilt-rotor aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), short takeoff and landing (STOL). Part rotary wing (helicopter), part turboprop. Infrequent crashes have grounded the airframe several times over the years, even recently. Likely the reason EON did not risk featuring this innovative aircraft in a Bond film.



In-flight refuel of an F/A-18 Hornet fighter Jet.

And receiving.


Delivering Paratroopers.


Load carrier.

Fire fighting duties.


Carrier duty.


And shore.

CommanderRoss

If you ask me it's a F/A 18 Super Hornet getting fuel there.

Birdleson wrote: »

So's your mom.

Well thank you! I'd like to think the egg hasn't fallen far from the nest either...

RichardTheBruce

Correction accepted, @CommanderRoss. I want to say I considered a couple images and mismatched the description. But it really comes down to a careful review before posting. I'll be more mindful to validate content in the future, there are plenty of quick references available.

RichardTheBruce

In heraldry, Osprey are often shown as white sea eagles holding fish. Or more accurate versions.

Coat of Arms of Arrecife. Coat of Volzhsk.

Sääksmäki.vaakuna.

CommanderRoss

Vaakuna Matata?

RichardTheBruce

Vaat a wonderful.....bird?

An oversight: the Osprey 5 Hovercraft in Die Another Day. Added above.

RichardTheBruce

SIlencerCo Osprey Micro Suppressor.

RichardTheBruce

That Sailor again. And Player's Cigarettes cards.

Osprey British Birds Grandee T32 Issued by Player No.10 1980.

Osprey Grandee Vintage Cigarette Card Britain's Endangered Wildlife No. 15.

Hawker Osprey UTC (South Africa) British Aeroplanes No. 42.

Hawker Osprey IV Player's Aircraft of the Royal Air Force No. 40 1938.

Hawker Osprey Aircraft Series No.34 No.1 by Godfrey Phillips 1938.

Agent_99

Beautifully connected! *applauds*

RichardTheBruce

Osprey images are used to promote environmental efforts, as on postage stamps.
Where Bond has gone. And may go.

CommanderRoss

Cool!

RichardTheBruce

Finishing up, a few interesting Osprey-class or -named vessels out there.
Some rival the Liparus.

Osprey Heavy Lift Vessel, unladen.
And with load.






Seven Osprey Supply Vessel.


Osprey-Class Coastal Mine Hunters.


Stolt Osprey Chemical Tanker.

Selous Scouts insignia.
Unrelated shipping logo.

RichardTheBruce

Pelican - ˈpel·ə·kən/ - noun
1. a large waterbird using a large bill as a scoop to catch large to medium sized fish
2. in heraldry, the pelican symbolizing Christ and sacrifice
Old English (pellicane). Latin (pelekan). Greek (pelekus).

Pelican (Pelecanidae): large birds that dive into ocean waters to catch fish. Their bills allow water to drain, then the catch is swallowed or offered to their young. In flight, fly low to the water’s surface using ground effect: reduced rag, increased lift by compressing the air below to conserve energy. Eight remaining species range the globe excepting the poles and Antarctica, also not found away from coastal waters. As a seabird and for human consumption: not kosher.

American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). North America, winter in Mexico.


Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis). Americas, includes Caribbean and Galapagos Islands.


Peruvian pelican (Pelecanus thagus). South America, Pacific Coast.

Great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus). East Mediterranean, Indochina, Malaysia, South Africa.

Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus). Africa, Seychelles, Arabia. Formerly Madagascar.

Pink-backed pelican (Pelecanus rufescens). Africa, Seychelles, Arabia. Formerly Madagascar.

Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus). South Asia: Pakistan, India, Indonesia. Formerly Philippines, eastern China.

RichardTheBruce

Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming, 1954.
Chapter VIII – Death of a Pelican.
Bond and Leiter walked past him and on to the pier. He didn't look up from his rifle as they went past but Bond sensed that his eyes were following them.
'If that isn't The Robber,' said Leiter, It's a blood relation.'
A pelican, grey with a pale yellow head, was hunched on one of the mooring posts at the end of the jetty. He let them get very close, then reluctantly gave a few heavy beats of his wings and planed down towards the water. The two men stood and watched him flying slowly along just above the surface of the harbour. Suddenly he crashed clumsily down, his long bill snaking out and down in front of him. It came up clutching a small fish which he moodily swallowed. Then the heavy bird got up again and went on fishing, flying mostly into the sun so that its big shadow would give no warning. When Bond and Leiter turned to walk back down the jetty it gave up fishing and glided back to its post. It settled with a clatter of wings and resumed its thoughtful consideration of the late afternoon.
The man was still bent over his gun, wiping the mechanism with an oily rag.
'Good afternoon,' said Leiter. 'You the manager of this wharf?'
'Yep,' said the man without looking up.
'Wondered if there was any chance of mooring my boat here. Basin's pretty crowded.'
'Nope.'
Leiter took out his notecase. 'Would twenty talk?'
'Nope.' The man gave a rattling hawk in his throat and spat directly between Bond and Leiter.
'Hey,' said Leiter. 'You want to watch your manners.'
The man deliberated. He looked up at Leiter. He had small, close-set eyes as cruel as a painless dentist's. x 'What's a name of your boat?'
'The Sybil,' said Leiter.
'Ain't no sich boat in the Basin,' said the man. He clicked the breech shut on his rifle. It lay casually on his lap pointing down the approach to the warehouse, away from the sea.
'You're blind,' said Leiter. 'Been there a week. Sixty-foot twin-screw Diesel. White with a green awning. Rigged for fishing.'
The rifle started to move lazilv in a low arc. The man's left hand was at the trigger, his right just in front of the trigger-guard, pivoting the gun.
They stood still.
The man sat lazily looking down at the breech, his chair still tilted against the small door with the yellow Yale lock.
The gun slowly traversed Leiter's stomach, then Bond's. The two men stood like statues, not risking a move of the hand. The gun stopped pivoting. It was pointing down the wharf. The Robber looked briefly up, narrowed his eyes and pulled the trigger. The pelican gave a fault squawk and they heard its heavy body crash into the water. The echo of the shot boomed across the harbour.
'What the hell d'you do that for?' asked Bond furiously.
'Practice,' said the man, pumping another bullet into the breech.
'Guess there's a branch of the ASPCA in this town,' said Leiter. 'Let's get along there and report this guy.'
'Want to be prosecuted for trespass?' asked The Robber, getting slowly up and shifting the gun under his arm.

Dr. No, Ian Fleming, 1958.
Chapter XIV – Come Into My Parlour
The electric clock in the cool dark room in the heart of the mountain showed four-thirty.
Outside the mountain, Crab Key had sweltered and stunk its way through another day. At the eastern end of the island, the mass of birds, Louisiana herons, pelicans , avocets, sandpipers, egrets, flamingoes and the few roseate spoonbills, went on with building, their nests or fished in the shallow waters of the lake. Most of the birds had been disturbed so often that year that they had given up any idea of building. In the past few months they had been raided at regular intervals by the monster that came at night and burned down their roosting places and the beginnings of their nests. This year many would not breed. There would be vague movements to migrate and many would die of the nervous hysteria that seizes bird colonies when they no longer have peace and privacy.

The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming, 1965.
Chapter 4 – The Stars Foretell
Bond took another shower and dressed in shirt, slacks, and sandals and wandered over to the little bar on the waterfront and ordered a double Walker's deluxe bourbon on the rocks and watched the pelicans diving for their dinner. Then he had another drink with a water chaser to break it down and wondered about Three-and-a-half Love Lane and what the "samples" would consist of and how he would take Scaramanga. This had been worrying him since he had been given his orders. It was all very fine to be told to "eliminate" the man, but James Bond had never liked killing in cold blood and to provoke a draw against a man who was possibly the fastest gun in the world was suicide. Well, he would just have to see which way the cards fell. The first thing to do was to clean up his cover. The diplomatic passport he would leave with Goodnight. He would now be "Mark Hazard" of the "Transworld Consortium," the splendidly vague title which could cover almost any kind of human activity. His business would have to be with the West Indian Sugar Company because that was the only business, apart from Kaiser Bauxite, that existed in the comparatively deserted western districts of Jamaica. And, at Negril, there was also the project for developing one of the most spectacular beaches in the world, beginning with the building of the Thunderbird Hotel. He could be a rich man looking around for a building site. If his hunch and the childish predictions of his horoscope were right, and he came up with Scaramanga at the romantic Love Lane address, it would be a question of playing it by ear.

Some_Kind_Of_Hero

My mind boggles over the tanker images above. The logistics of simply moving cargo that enormous and that heavy onto or off of a vessel is a complete mystery to me.

CommanderRoss

That's one reason why technology is so fascinating. Allthough I must say, with those cranes as a load it looks more like a huge glitch in a computer simulation then something that could happen in the real world.

The Pelikan is a beautiful bird. I always love seeing it (perhaps because it means I'm in warmer waters then my home town ;-) )

'it now goes by Pelican' song by Bob Scholte (Dutch) about flying by 'Pelikaan'(Pelican), a Fokker FXVIII used to fly the Dutch East Indies. Singing a girl could go to Batavia (Jakarta) 'for the weekend' to meet her love. An optimism about the possibilities we still can't actually manage ;-)

RichardTheBruce

Fig. 9. Brown Pelican

Birds of the West Indies, James Bond, 1961. pp. 22-23
PELICANS: Pelecanidae
Of the eight species of these well-known water birds only two are American; both of these are known from the West Indies. The Brown Pelican, the smallest of its family, is indigenous to the islands, but the American White Pelican, primarily a fresh-water bird, is merely a rare or sporadic winter visitant.
Pelicans feed on fish, which the brown species obtains by plunging into the sea, the white by scooping from shallow water. They are remarkably buoyant, due to the thin, hollow bones and the air reservoirs that permeate and envelop their bodies.

AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN Pelicanus erythrorhynchos
Local name: Alcatraz Blanco.
Description: 54-70". A large, white pelican; all but innermost remiges black, appearing as a broad, black band in flight. Occurs on lagoons or lakes, usually in flocks.
Range: Western North America. Winters south to Panama and, occasionally, in western Cuba; vagrant to Bimini; questionable records from Isle of Pines and Antigua (January 25-April 11).

BROWN PELICAN Pelecanus occidentalis
Local names: Pelican; Alcratrax; Grand Gosier; Pělican.
Description: 44-55". Readily identified by its large size and characteristics features. Unlike other sea birds the neck is not extended in flight, the head being drawn back on to the shoulders. Colouration largely dark brown, the upperparts mostly silvery grey; upper part of the head and stripe down neck white, the neck entirely white during post-nuptial moult. Young have the head neck and upperparts brownish, the underparts mostly white.
Either solitary or associated in small flocks, when usually seen flying in oblique single file close to the surface of the sea. In normal flight a few wing-beats are followed by a glide, but both Brown and White Pelicans occasionally soar high in the air.
Habitat: Coastal areas.
Nidification: In colonies. The roughly built nests are situated on the ground or in bushes or low trees, usually on small islands. Eggs (2-3) white when freshly laid, but soon become nest-stained.
Range: Virtually throughout the West Indies. Also North, Central and South America, including the Galápagos Islands.

Agent_99

A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican,
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week
But I'm damned if I see how the helican!

- Dixon Lanier Merritt

Apologies for the filthy language. Shocking.

CommanderRoss

Positively shocking.

from Wikipedia:
"Alcatraz Island was given its name by the Spanish because of the number of large numbers of brown pelicans nesting present. The word alcatraz is itself derived from the Arabic "al-caduos", a term used for a water-carrying vessel and likened to the pouch of the pelican. The English name albatross is also derived by corruption of the Spanish word". The above text from James Bond triggered my search. Another connection then, as Sean Connery was playing the only one who ever got out of Pelican Island in 'The Rock'.

j_w_pepper

Thinking of pelicans, my generation (and several others) will automatically remember the Pelikan ink cartridge fountain pen they used for learning how to write in school. One of the tough ideological decisions to make in life (on the level of Beatles/Stones, tea/coffee, Catholic/protestant) was whether to prefer Pelikan or Geha fountain pens. Pelikan won hands-down.

RichardTheBruce

That limerick's essential here, thanks for posting it @Agent_99.



Nice connection, @CommanderRoss, all the way from Pelican Island to Sean Connery.



Welcome back, @j_w_pepper, not sure if the Pelikan fountain pen has changed over the years.

Thunderfinger

Ah, the Pelikan fountain pen. Childhood memories. I should get one.

RichardTheBruce

Dr. No, Terence Young, 1962.
Ursula Andress and pelican in publicity stills. Quite a bird.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/db/9c/73db9cbb68d2364c2f1299aa4f1bec4d.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/80/b4/ac/80b4acb10ef09195479afc9df3a83e05--ursula-andress-bond-girls.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GiNS4xKhh54/VdtysBrKyEI/AAAAAAAAMsk/RpAa9O6T8kE/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/ursula%2Bandress_opt.jpg

Live and Let Die, Guy Hamilton, 1973.
-Eagle Emblems on the Sheriffs' hats.
Hi-res image of Sheriff J.W. Pepper.
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY4NzA1MTU4N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDg2NDk0NA@@._V1_UY1200_CR59306301200_AL_.jpg

[Content migrated from Page 14 Eagle.]
A similar style Louisiana patch.
And a Sheriff’s badge similar to the ones on J.W.’s hat and over his heart. Whether they are all pressed brass or have the color center inlay, Louisiana is partial to the Pelican as a symbol.


The Louisiana State Police (POH-leese) have the Eagle on top, also the Pelican below.



There is the state outline badge.


Louisiana State Flag: The Pelican State. Obviously.



Louisiana State Seal.

CommanderRoss

Is it me or does Ursula just look very young in those pictures?

RichardTheBruce

@Birdleson, it's more correct to say the Louisiana State Police have the Eagle (and Pelican). A local sheriff or deputy has the state bird: the Pelican.

@CommanderRoss, she just a looks very Andress to me. But she was about 26 at the time.

RichardTheBruce

From this hi-res image, open and click on it a second time targeting the badges for more detail.
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY4NzA1MTU4N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDg2NDk0NA@@._V1_UY1200_CR59306301200_AL_.jpg

I see enough on the five-pointed badge to identify it as the standard sheriff or deputy's badge, shown earlier.
So I'm calling J.W.'s badge as displaying the Pelican.
The sheriff's car door decal also appears to show the Pelican.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7694/16491066383_e6064da247_b.jpg
Less visible here.
https://igx.4sqi.net/img/general/699x268/56761927_lqTHizL8DRsSWGrbrjVbM761Fx6ZsnX3k5RP5OHmF6o.jpg

Checking out the Louisiana State Troopers, these have a different type of badge than I showed in a previous post (with Eagle). And also the state outline logo badge I did give an example for. These clearly have the Pelican.
ilarge.lisimg.com/image/7941590/960full-live-and-let-die-screenshot.jpg

Plus the same logo as the decal on the car door.
pics.imcdb.org/784/laldstatepolice5.jpg


So with the Sheriff, it's the Pelican. And from what I see on screen, for the State Police it's the Pelican.

RichardTheBruce

The heraldic Pelican.


Its use traces to Christian roots and the Pelican as parent, sacrificing itself for its young. Literally communicated with the bird's own beak piercing its breast (vulning)--and in the absence of other food, giving its own blood to its chicks (piety). Symbolizing Christ's sacrifice.

Suggested by the natural pose with beak to breast, plus the act of forcing food from the pouch to its young.
No blood involved there, however.


Linked to the Corpus Christi religious feast, from medieval times.


Corpus Christi College arms, Cambridge.


Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Pelican and sun dial. Plus coat of arms.



Charles University in Prague, Switzerland, First Faculty of Medicine.

RichardTheBruce

The Dowager (Imperial Pelican) Fabergé Egg, jeweled Easter egg by Peter Carl Fabergé, 1898. Designed for Nicholas II of Russia as a gift to his mother, the Dowager Empress.

Combination of gold, diamonds, pearls. Colored enamel, watercolor on ivory. Gold stand--notice the (crowned) Eagle heads and Lion feet, suggesting a Griffon. Pelican is in the classic pose feeding chicks, motherly care. Inscription: "Visit our vineyards, O Lord, and we shall dwell in thee." Egg unfolds into 8 ivory screens representing charities supported by the empress herself: Xenia Institute; Nikolai Orphanage; Patriotic Institute; Smolny Institute; Ekaterina Institute; Pavel Institute; St. Petersburg Orphanage of Nikolai; and the Elizabeth Institute. Today it is at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, part of its European Decorative Art Collection.
Egg unfolded as 8 ivory panels.


Fabergé Pelican, 1915. Chalcedony, ruby eyes, gold feet.

Fabergé Pelican, 19th century. Agat, ruby eyes, golden legs.

CommanderRoss

So Bond has more links to pelicans then one would expect

RichardTheBruce

More than some, @CommanderRoss.
Extending to previous territory hopefully has some interesting mentions.
Eggs, Fabergé. Player's Cigarettes and others.

62nd Division logo, British Army, WWI.