American White Pelicans

I was looking out the den window, saw some large, really white birds and thought I'd take a closer look. Binoculars were nearby. American White Pelicans, seven of them had stopped to have a little lunch near the grass adjacent to my boathouse.

Pretty cool . . . they supposedly act like shepherds and sort of corral fish, then once they are cornered, they gobble them up. I haven't seen much down there moving around in the water so I am uncertain what they had found.

Beautiful birds. As we walked down to grab some photos, they sort of kept their distance from us but you can see them moving down the cove a bit. Sorry, not a great photo and it is rotated.

Lake Athens is close to their wintering range but most of them like to go all the way down to coastal waters, so they are either at the very northern end of their winter homes or just flying by, with a little lay over, on the way to more southern and warmer weather.

Brad

Interesting how they learned to not dive for food like Brown Pelicans.

Fitz, they were up against the grass/reeds in the foreground of the photo, not far off land, and just dunking very long beaks into the water repeatedly, holding them up to let whatever they were eating slither down their throats.

Nice looking birds with a very pure white coloration. The black area of the wings weren't apparent to me until they took off in flight.

Another poster said the same species has been seen over on Benbrook.

You just never know what you'll see out in nature.

Brad

When white rock lake floods I have seen them get under Mockingbird bridge in the back current. They get in a circle and dunk their heads underwater in unison it's like a beautiful dance and very cool to see.

A Pelican
It’s beak can hold more
Than it’s belly can

Awesome birds!

those were at my Dads house on Lake Arlington
they left right at New Years

is this the bird with black under the wings
& about a 6 foot wingspan

they are fabulous

Cool birds!

Yep!

I took this on Palestine last year. A few weeks earlier there were several hundred roosting in the back of Kickapoo along with a couple of white swans. Think they must just be stopping on the way further south as there weren't nearly as many a week or so later.

We get a bunch of them that winter on Cedar Creek Lake. They have been doing this for years.