I was out with Tophee and 1BE today for a very nice paddle out on the Mokelumne River, but mainly to clean up the last of the river caches out here. We had just come from one cache downriver and along the way I saw something that seemed, well... out of sorts. Stranded along the bank of the Mokelumne River and tangled in the foliage was a bright teal colored bird that seemed to resemble a toucan. It batted its eyes at me as I approached it carefully, trying to see if my intentions were going to be helpful or harmful. I slowly reached out a hand and helped pluck it from the water. Why... it wasn't a toucan, but an Aquacan!
Aquacans are a very rare species of aquatic toucans and often times a miracle to even see one in the wild. Yet, here I was, sitting in a kayak on the river and holding one of these majestic birds. After Andi got some pecking at my eyeballs out her system, she settled down on the front of my kayak and decided to stay there for most of the rest of the trip.
Andi helped guide me through some deep and thick vegetation to get to some of the caches we were hunting down and I was thankful for that. However, on our way back downriver, we came across a very nice man who commented about Andi being such a remarkable bird. He was also amazed to see such a glorious bird out in the open. It was then that Andi gave a goodbye pecking at my eyeballs (it must be an Aquacan sign of affection) and flew over to the nice man on the river bank. I said goodbye to Andi and paddled away back down the river.