Pelicans
Chuck Louch, PTMSC Docent 
A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belican.
He takes in his beak
Food enough for a week.
But I'm darned if I see how the helican.
The wonderful bird of Dixson Lanier Merritt's limerick is represented around the world by eight species, only two of which occur in North America. The brown pelican is a large bird (about the size of a wild turkey) with a wingspan of up to 7.5 feet. It can be found in bays, tidal estuaries, and beaches along both our coasts. Although mainly a southern bird it may sometimes be found as far north as Nova Scotia and British Columbia. People on the PTMSC Protection Island cruises in October of 1997 and 1998 were lucky enough to see brown pelicans thanks, probably, to the effects of El Nino. This past December brown pelicans have been spotted moving eastward through the strait of Juan de Fuca into Puget Sound.
On the West Coast, pelicans nest on the ground, primarily on offshore islands where they can be free from ground predators, while in Florida and the Keys they often nest in the trees of mangrove swamps. Pelicans are spectacular birds and fun to observe particularly when they're feeding. This last summer Sandy and I watched as flocks of them patrolled back and forth at a height of 15 to 20 feet over the shallows off Rialto Beach. Upon spotting a fish, a bird would peel off into a dive with head and neck outstretched, and wings folded back for streamlining. Just before entering the water the bird would transform itself into a torpedo by clapping its wings tightly against its body. We could tell when a bird had been successful because, upon returning to the surface, it would point its beak upward to force water out of its pouch through openings at the corners of its mouth and then, GULP, down would go the fish for, contrary to the poet's assertion, the pouch is only used to catch food, not to store it. This mode of feeding has its price because, even though the eyes are closed a split second before hitting the water, the constant impact of diving apparently damages them so that many birds eventually go blind.
White pelicans are significantly larger than the browns having a wingspan of up to 10 feet (larger than a condor). They are mainly inland birds found around freshwater lakes and reservoir. Their nests are built on the ground in widely scattered colonies from western Canada and the northwestern United States, east to Minnesota, and south to California and Colorado. Winters are spent along the coasts of southern California and the Gulf Coast of Florida. In contrast to their brown brethren who generally fly low over the water, white pelicans often catch thermals and soar to great heights. Several years ago, while driving across North Dakota, we saw flocks of large white birds high in the summer sky. We thought at first that they were swans, but upon putting our binoculars on them, lo and behold, white pelicans!
White pelicans don't risk their eyes by plunge diving but simply submerge their heads under water to scoop up fish in their bills; sometimes a group of them will fish cooperatively by forming a line to drive prey into shallow water where they can be scooped up more readily.
Pelicans are indeed wonderful birds. May they be with us always!
Illustrations by Indu Soini.
For more information:
Edgar M. Reilly: The Audubon Illustrated Handbook of American Birds. McGraw Hill 1968.
T. Gilbert Pearson, ed.: Birds of America Doubleday & Co. 1917.
J.C. Welty: The Life of Birds. CBS College Publishers 1982.