My brother was living in Kansas with wife and kid. He helped with air fare so I could visit. His favorite thing is going to zoos, so we went on big long car rides to visit Wichita and Kansas zoos. During one of these rides, in the great distance, flying over those “amber waves of grain,” I saw a lone, massive, white bird. Based on an impression of its form and flight, I decided it was a white pelican – the only one I’ve ever seen, assuming the ID was even right.
I’ve only ever seen the smaller brown pelican on a trip to Ocean Shores, a tourist spot in my state. They looked like pterosaurs in flight, and I saw a few very long flight feathers shed on the beach. Very cool. But I never have gotten a close-up look at a pelican, even though it’s apparently a pretty easy thing to do. In internet videos they do not seem at all shy.
Like the herons I mentioned, pelicans are ridiculous eaters. You can find videos of them eating random birds the size of their own heads, trying to eat things that won’t even fit down their own elastic gullets, or just staring menacingly at humans, as if to say “give up the goods.” Not every creature needs to be thinking deep thoughts. That’s fine. Live to eat, if you will. If they were about anything other than cramming stuff in their throat, what would that even be? Pelican poetry.
Not much to say; this bird was a glimpse.
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a decent stretch of my bike commute is along a shoreline path, so I get to see a whole bunch of shorebirds (and other sea critters) on a nearly daily basis. Pelicans are just kinda weird, and they would be absolutely terrifying if they were much bigger. really good at soaring/gliding, and sometimes I’ll see vortexs of dozens of them circling around for some reason.
Was at a community college in the Mojave, and it had a little artificial pond, typically full of Canada geese, domestic ducks/geese, coots, and seagulls. One day there were a pair of large white birds that drew a crowd, someone asked what they were, and responses went everything from ducks to swans to penguins. then someone said “those are pelicans”, and proceeded to get shouted down by the penguin crowd. I don’t think they were being ironic…
mojave penguins are no joak, bud. beware!
Maybe it was a harbinger of doom for someone less perceptive than yourself.
I see brown pelicans on the coast, and white pelicans during migrations in eastern Washington. Never have seen one in Seattle. Fifty years ago brown pelicans were rare on the coast. As the population recovered they expanded north from California. After they came, we learned that when the pelicans suddenly vanished a storm was due. Cool birds.
marcus – lol
wiess – i’m so impressed with how big they look in the sky. it’s part of the reason i figured the distant bird was a white pelican. found a good pic for comparing their sizes
I’d guess your ID was right. White pelicans are unmistakable. I was shocked the first time I saw them in Green Bay. They’re all over the Green Bay, and the Western shore of Lake Michigan now. Based on the reading I’ve done, they’re a very new phenomenon in that region. Even the earliest European settlers in Wisconsin didn’t describe anything like them, but they historically were all over the plains further West and Canada. I’ve read speculation that they might have gotten lost during migration. They also got lucky that the Green Bay has gotten much cleaner in the last 50 years. They might have starved in the 80s, but fish populations are booming today. During mating season, the males are particularly striking, with their beaks and face taking on vivid orange/red colors. And watching them feed together is also really cool.
thanks for sayin’ so, and also for the info.