Pond Pelicans: Imagine That!

by Lon Drake

On the last evening of August we were eating dinner and enjoying the breeze coming through the screen door. Barb said there was a big white bird circling the pond and it was “different.” Knowing that her eyesight is better than mine, I checked it out and thought its graceful spiral soaring said pelican. While I was puzzling what a loner would be doing at water as small as our pond, three dozen more came spiraling down from high in the sky and there was no doubt that these were pelicans.

So I called neighbor Kate, told her we had guests, and set up my spotting scope on the balcony. The larger ones were adults with very white feathers while the somewhat smaller juveniles had lost all their down but still had a grayish cast to their new feathers. The adults also still had a bit of herding behavior toward the younger ones.
Kate had grabbed her camera and hustled down to the pond. It was impressive to observe her through the scope, trying to remain inconspicuous in the cattails while defending herself from voracious mosquitoes. She must have donated a pint, but got some great photos.

At daybreak they were still there, but instead of cruising the shallows in teams to trap little fish, they were huddled in a tight knot in the very center of the pond, presumably to get as far as possible from coyotes during the night. They might have had a restless night, lacking the security of their usual haunts in reservoirs and rivers. When we returned at lunch time, they were gone.

We built the pond in 1971 and this is the first time I’ve even seen pelicans on it. I wonder why they visited. My best guess is because after all the rain, the reservoir and river are totally opaque with mud, while our pond is crystal clear and full of fish. But after a restless night of not being able to get far enough from the shoreline, plus coyotes yipping nearby, they might have thought they had checked into the Bates Hotel and were anxious to leave.

Over the years, we have so often found it to be true, that “if you build it, they will come.” It might be a pond or a wetland or a patch of trees; and the birds and butterflies and beavers start showing up, as well as critters you might have never imagined, like the bobcat on the edge of Iowa City, or pelicans on our neighborhood pond.