I was lucky enough to catch the resident white pelican doing a little late-afternoon fishing.
I mentioned before that white pelicans usually fish as a flock, herding the fish into a tight school of easily scooped-up morsels. This one is all alone, but still manages to catch lunch. It uses its beak like a net, sweeping it in an arc and scooping up anything in its path. In the shallow water near shore, each time it scooped, the pelican scraped the muddy bottom and stirred up a lot of silt in the process. Was it searching specifically for bottom-dwelling fish? It didn't seem to mind eating a bit of mud in the process. I noticed that this pelican seems to be right-beaked: it always scooped to the right.
Got one!
The hazards of scooping are, of course, that sometimes you get a bit of algae stuck to your face.
I mentioned before that white pelicans usually fish as a flock, herding the fish into a tight school of easily scooped-up morsels. This one is all alone, but still manages to catch lunch. It uses its beak like a net, sweeping it in an arc and scooping up anything in its path. In the shallow water near shore, each time it scooped, the pelican scraped the muddy bottom and stirred up a lot of silt in the process. Was it searching specifically for bottom-dwelling fish? It didn't seem to mind eating a bit of mud in the process. I noticed that this pelican seems to be right-beaked: it always scooped to the right. 
Got one!
The hazards of scooping are, of course, that sometimes you get a bit of algae stuck to your face.
It's beak hump is really big! Must be mating season.
ReplyDeleteYeah that algae is really going to backfire in front of all the laaaaadies. :) It's like the biggest spinach in your teeth.
ReplyDelete