Of Palm Trees and Pelicans

It’s almost Pavlovian: if you are from a northern clime, you see a palm tree and, BAM, you feel like you are on vacation.  Pelicans flying in their V-formation, just inches off the water and I am transported to Florida.  Now I can add the coast of Texas to that response.

No sooner had we entered Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, when, there they were, Brown Pelicans, cruising and “splooshing” into the water with inimitable Brown pelican style.  On the Cape, the closest thing we had to this were the Northern Gannets who came closer to shore in spring and fall.  I loved watching a diving/feeding frenzy, but it was usually at a distance.  A lot of tourists thought they were seeing whales.  But when a pelican dive- bombs right in front of you, it is unmistakable.

We would see both Brown and White pelicans as we toured about that weekend.  Amazing, when I was just out of college, I sponsored an Endangered Species Weekend at the Boston Science Museum and I used a graphic of the Brown pelican to indicated an exhibit that reflected information on endangered species. 

At that time, mid-70’s, the Brown Pelican’s population was severely depleted as a result of too much DDT getting into the food chain and becoming more toxic as it went up the food chain.  The effect it had on many fish eating birds; pelicans, osprey, bald eagles, etc. was to make the eggshell so thin that it would break when the parent tried to incubate it.  It was heartbreaking, but legislation was passed, DDT was banned, at least in our country, and the birds have made remarkable comebacks.

And they are pretty remarkable birds.  The Brown Pelican, unlike the White Pelican, dives for its fish, which it can spot, from 20-60’ in the air.  Watch them as they dive for they fold back their wings, and then turn their body to the side protecting that long bill.  Internally, they have air sacs under the skin and in their skeletal structure to help, not only cushion the blow, but keep them buoyant when they are on the water.  That expandable pouch can hold 3 gallons of water, which of course, they must squeeze out, retaining just the fish and those they swallow head first.  You can see some pretty crazy distortions in their pouch when they net a really large fish.  Gulls have been noted sitting on the head of a pelican while he drains the water and snatching the fish right from it.  All’s fair in love and war and fishing I guess.

I hope we get back to the coast in spring, for then, the male pelicans have breeding colors that show up in darkened bills, brighter facial patches and, with the White pelicans, they grow a knob on the upper bill that will disappear once the young are hatched.  Something this northerner didn’t know they did.  

Also, cool to see, would be any of the older chicks trying to feed from the regurgitated fish stew that the parent pelican has in its pouch, which by the way is scientifically referred to as a gular skin.  The parent feeds very young pelicans, dripping the regurgitated fish into their bills, but as they get older they start to help themselves.  Wouldn’t that be entertaining to see?

Just one more thing, when you see them flying so low over the water, and barely beating their wings, and wonder why they aren’t tumbling out of the sky, it is because they get an aerodynamic lift being that close to the water.  Something to do with physics I suppose, beating the air down with their wings and having if come back from the surface with more lift power.  Ask an aeronautical engineer; they could do a better job of explaining it.  But the pelicans have been doing that for millions of years and, please God, may they continue to do it for millions more.  It just wouldn’t be a vacation without them.