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Project Noah Nature School
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
An American White Pelican
Flying over a small slough that's separated by a dirt road and surrounded by farm fields
We were parked on this dirt road waiting to see if any waterfowl would come out of the reeds when this beautiful Pelican flew alongside our car. We've seen numbers of them in the larger slough but had never gotten this close to them before. Spying my car, this Pelican chose not to land in the smaller slough and continued flying towards the larger of the two sloughs. A farmer stopped and talked to us the next day and told us all the fish had died the previous winter in both sloughs due to lack of oxygen he thought. The previous winter followed a drought which brought water levels down so many shallow sloughs and lakes froze out completely
Spotted on May 9, 2013
Submitted on Jun 28, 2013
2 Comments
Yes; thank you, AnnaWhipkey! :-)))
I was trying to figure out what that growth was, on top of the bill and I learned something new: "In breeding season, it has a light yellowish crest on the back of its head and a nuptial tubercle or fibrous plate on the upper part of its bill. The nuptial tubercle will fall off when mating season is over and the crest will turn gray."