BIRD OF THE WEEK NO. 21

American White Pelican

LAST YEAR, I watched Prehistoric Planet, a documentary with remarkable computer-generated scenes of dinosaurs hunting, eating, and mating (narrated by Sir David Attenborough, of course). Seeing the pelicans of today, with their large heads and bills, it’s easy to imagine them appearing in the film, flying through the Late Cretaceous period. And I’m not the first to imagine them as prehistoric birds. The famous conservationist Aldo Leopold once wrote of pelicans, “With queer antediluvian grunts they set wing, descending in majestic spirals to the welcoming wastes of a bygone age.”

AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS are cousins of the Brown Pelican, which was once threatened but returned in large numbers after DDT was banned in 1972. Brown Pelicans are now common in the Bay Area, where I lived most of my life. Though there are only sixty colonies of the American White Pelicans on record, they travel and nest in large flocks, and are not considered a species of concern. During the summer seven years ago, a group of them settled on Whidbey Island, across the bay from Port Townsend, where I live now. They’ve returned every year since. I’ve read various speculations as to why they’ve relocated, the most common being habitat loss elsewhere due to the warming climate. At Malheur, the famous birding refuge taken over by the Bundy militia in 2016, receding waters have made nesting sites more vulnerable to predators.

I’VE SEEN the Whidbey pelicans in two places. Lake Crockett is a protected wetland adjacent to the ferry terminal where I land when going to the island. The pelicans congregate on the opposite side of the lake, where they are difficult to photograph. Trying to get closer, I once sank in the mud and spent the better part of an hour extracting myself from the muck. Lesson learned. At Deer Island Lagoon, on the south side of the island, they are easier to see and photograph. Terns and gulls often gather around the pelicans, probably to collect or snatch fish from the bigger birds. It’s a thrilling scene. The pelicans take off in groups, circle broadly around the lagoon, and then make splashy synchronized landings. I can’t wait to see them again this summer.

Nikon D500, 500mm, f8@1/800, ISO 6,400