Plenty of Pelicans
Friday morning, a group of 115 white pelicans soared overhead at Baylands, riding the thermals, gliding slowly west to east.
Though we often see white pelicans floating high above us, I’ve never before seen such a large flock.
A Splash of Color. White pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) are not completely white. The white body is accented by dramatic black feathers outlining the wings, and then there’s that big orange bill and matching orange feet.
I think of them as tuxedo pelicans: we can easily see the contrasting black & white feathers. The orange bits are not obvious in flight, since the bird tucks its feet into its feathers, hunches its head back on its shoulders and rests its bill on its breast.
And, oh, about that bill. An Internet site says it can hold three gallons of water. After the pelican scoops up a fish, the bird tilts the beak down to drain the water, then tilts it up to swallow.
From my childhood, I still remember a limerick about pelicans:
A wonderful bird is a pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week;
But I’m damned if I see how the helican.
It sounds like Ogden Nash, but it’s not. It’s the work of Dixon Lanire Merrith, a newspaper editor and humorist who wrote it in 1910.
Home Sweet Home. As far as I know, pelicans never land at our Baylands park, though we see lots of other kinds of birds. Dave Marks says pelicans hang out at the Baylands park in Palo Alto. Here’s a pretty picture of them standing in shallow water there (scroll down on the page).
Since we see them often at around 10:30 a.m., I think they like mid-morning joy-rides. Baylands obviously offers them gourmet updrafts, just as it offers prime hot-air action to the DLG crowd.
I wonder what they do the rest of the day? Maybe they glide on thermals for hours, then fly home for a nice fish dinner.
Fishing Parties. The Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds says that white pelicans have wingspans from 8 to 9.5 feet and that they fish while swimming, not plunging from sky to water like brown pelicans. They often fish in groups, notes Peterson.
And, obviously, they often fly in groups, showing us unfeathered upstarts how it’s supposed to be done.
Tags: Baylands, Birds, Flying.