At first, the bird was just a blur, bobbing on the ocean waves just off-shore. My wife Betty and I were recently relaxing on the beach at Gulf Shoes, Ala., when we noticed the feathered form floating on the foam a few yards away, but we couldn’t tell immediately what it was.Suddenly a huge wave swept over it, sending it crashing and thrashing onto the beach a few feet from us. Clearly, this was a pelican in peril.