Pelicans

We came back to Minnesota April 6th and when we left Ajijic the Pelicans on Lake Chapala were getting ready to migrate.  Three days ago they arrived near Duluth and have been resting before they move further north.  Today is May 9th.  I thought my Ajijic friends might be interested.  All the local lakes are ice free.

Interesting. I thought the birds that came here were from B.C. and Alaska.

We have a lot of the white pelicans here on Lake of the Woods.

Banded birds spend time in the Denver area.

Do they produce offspring there or are they just passing thru?

No pelicans in BC that I am aware of. I think they all hang out further east. It rains too much on the west coast.....jaja.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_White_Pelican/id

My mom lives in that little yellow corner of SE BC that is highlighted on that migratory map. I'll ask her if she ever see's them there.

Years ago I read that they summer in N. BC and S. Alaska. I see that was BS!

Jaja.......you must have heard it on TOB then. Anyhow my mom just said she has never seen those pelicans in Cranbrook which is smack in the middle of that yellow triangle. Seems you can't trust that map either.

I believe I read it in Karen Blue's book.

Well, fortunately for them (I hope), the birds know where they are going, even if we don't. Honestly, I don't know how we humans have managed to be the dominant species, given our sense of direction. (Costco is where? Did we just pass it? Oh, geez!)

I grew up in that strip of country along the southern Oregon/northern California border, right in the middle of the Pacific Flyway. We had Pelicans most of the year but certainly more during the summer months. We had sooo many pelicans that our local high school mascot was, guess what? I grew up thinking all pelicans where white, until I saw my first pelican at the ocean when I was 12. I thought perhaps they were immature until I was told that no, pelagic pelicans are brown. Who knew?

The white pelicans nest in western US and Canada. I've been to a lake (Stum-mobs of them) where they nest in central BC. I've seen them on one other lake in central BC but I think they were just fishing there.