Graceful Flight: American White Pelicans on the Tuolumne River

I've had some rare privileges of late during my walks on the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail. A week ago a Bald Eagle paid a visit and hung out for the better part of the week. The eagle moved on, but the next day I was keeping an eye in the sky anyway and saw a pair of huge birds overhead.

I briefly thought "eagles", but quickly realized the smooth gliding and graceful turns meant American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). It was kind of nice because this is only the third time I've seen them from this part of the river.

I'm not sure what drew them out here. They tend to prefer shallow waters where they can collectively herd fish. We've got a series of ponds generated by gold mining and quarrying, and I suppose they have healthy fish populations. Whatever their reason for visiting, it's always a thrill to see them flying overhead with such grace.

Strange Looking "Geese" at Goose Day on the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge

Um...those don't look like geese to me...

The San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge is a marvelous bit of the (almost) original landscape of the Great Valley of California, combining prairie and riparian habitats in support of hundreds of thousands of migratory waterfowl. There is a four mile long hiking trail in one sector of the refuge, but only a viewing platform at the other, at the end of Beckwith Road a few miles of west of the town of Modesto. I have seen incredible sights from the platform and from along the road, but it's always been sort of a mystery as to what lies in distance, the places where the public is not usually allowed to go.

Last month, we were given the chance to find out. The refuge sponsored their first ever Goose Day celebration on January 13, and the festivities included an auto-tour into the interior of the preserve. The managers expected two or three dozen people, but got 100-200 people instead. The group worked out caravanning and dozens of cars motored their way into the refuge.

The ironic part of course is that few geese were in attendance (who could have foreseen that?). I don't think anyone who was there was disappointed. Their interest was in all of the birds who call the refuge home, and the chance to see the interior up close. Aside from a few comments about how cold it was, I heard no complaints. The most visible of the "charismatic" birds were several dozen American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) on an island in Page Lake.

The pelicans famously scoop up fish in their bill, although they do not store them there (they swallow them right away). They don't dive like Brown Pelicans, but instead will hunt cooperatively, swimming along in a group herding the fish ahead to where they can scoop them up.

The Pelicans are doing well. Their population crashed in the middle 1900s due to pressure from hunters and fishermen who feared the birds were consuming the valuable fish species (they weren't). DDT had an effect on populations as well, as did wetlands habitat loss. Their numbers are rebounding today.

The auto-tour spent around an hour on the shoreline of the pond in the midst of the refuge. We did see geese flying overhead, and we also saw a Great Horned Owl, Sandhill Cranes, Black-necked Stilts, Yellowlegs, and numerous other shorebirds. The tour continued on the other side of Beckwith Road, following the dike along the Stanislaus River across from Caswell State Park.

One can see why they don't want to have unrestrained public visitation. The road maintenance costs would be prohibitive.

After the tour I did in fact find a couple of geese, some Snow Geese along Beckwith Road a bit west of the viewing platform. There are in fact tens of thousands of geese in residence, but during the day they range across the region looking for food. They gather at dusk in huge flocks.

A few days later, things were back to normal, and I headed out the platform during an afternoon break. There were hundreds of Pelicans on the island, and perhaps several thousand Sandhill Cranes visible from the road.

Bald Eagle among the Pelicans at the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge

I was out at the Beckwith Road Platform this afternoon, seeing how the Cackling Geese and Ross's Geese were faring in today's rainstorm. The rain had actually cleared out and I was treated to the awesome sight of thousands of the geese taking flight for some reason or another. But that's not what I'm writing about today.

I was talking to one of the Fish and Wildlife managers, and he hinted that I should be on the lookout for a Bald Eagle that had been hanging out at the refuge the last few days. As luck would have it, I saw a large bird in the distance, flying along with, or in front of, a flock of American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). I thought it was a hawk with flying geese at the great distance, but the camera zoom showed different.

The birds seemed to be following a parallel pathway. Bald Eagles sometimes prey on Pelicans, or least their nestlings. They're also not averse to stealing fish from pelicans.

I wish the pictures were a bit sharper. The eagle was probably a quarter or a third of a mile away, so I really appreciate the zoom on my camera! A few moments later, I caught the eagle perching on a post in the distance. 

I have some closer shots of a Bald Eagle at Turlock Lake, and in a life and death struggle with Great Blue Herons in Victoria, British Columbia. Check them out!

American White Pelicans (and a bonus Cormorant) at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

We were on a long trip to the Pacific Northwest, and on our last day of our journey we were covering a lot of ground, nearly 600 miles. Such long slogs require a few rest breaks, and the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge beckoned as we traveled south down the Great Valley. The refuges find their greatest mission during the winter migrations of Geese and Sandhill Cranes, but some birds are resident all year.

The most visible birds were the American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) and Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus). The two birds often share the same habitat, but tend to seek different prey at different water levels. Pelicans aren't above stealing fish from the smaller Cormorants once in a while. Things were pretty peaceful during our visit, though.

Pelicans are huge heavy birds and they seem so ungainly on the ground, but they are incredibly graceful in flight. Their huge beaks aren't used to store fish, just to catch them. They don't dive like Brown Pelicans. They tend to dip their beaks in the water while swimming instead.

The pelicans generally breed on inland lakes and islands, but will spend winters along the coastlines, where they share the environment with the Brown Pelican. A large rookery exists at Pyramid Lake in Nevada and a few parts of northeastern California, but according to this report, they don't breed to any great extent in the Great Valley anymore because of habitat destruction.

I guess they like hanging out with the local ducks. As you can see, they are huge birds, the second largest in North America. They have a wingspan of 8-10 feet!