Well, Mr. Murphy reigns supreme once again. First the good news. My 50K simulation run last Monday was a huge success. Made it through the planned 26 miles on that hellspawn of a course and ended upright. Big thanks to Linda running support for me, driving from each checkpoint to the next to keep me fueled and my spirits up. A great feeling to complete knowing I only had to grind out 8 or so more for the actual race in two weeks (as are most trail races, actual course is longer than stated). Taper officially started the next day with a quick run with friends at another park we train at regularly. A little more than .5 miles into it, an unexpected root and an unwavering tree resulted in an ambulance ride. Ortho-surgeon confirmed surgery for tomorrow. In short, I will be out for a while dealing with recovery and getting over the absolutely sickening reality all the training since December is now for naught. In the meantime, we will be heavily relying on Brad to keep you entertained… starting today! Take care everyone, Brad or I will try to keep you posted on the progress.
Take it away Brad…
Have I mentioned before what a gold mine Huntington Beach State Park is for birders? Nearly two weeks after our February trip, I’m still sorting, selecting, editing, and writing about the birds Jan and I saw while we were there. The more seasoned birders told us it was not a very good birding week to be there. Not good?! They assured us that later in the season we could expect to see 100 (or more) species in a single day. As it was, we saw 26 species at Huntington alone. That’s 26 of the 56 we saw on the entire trip from just this one location.
Just past noon the tide was about halfway through outbound cycle. Jan had walked to the end of the existing portion of the observation deck near the nature center. I had not seen brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) that close before, and the long zoom lens really helped bring them up close and personal. So close, in fact, that I had to back off the zoom a bit to fit them in the field of view.
Hit the jump to learn more about these unique fisherbirds!
As I mentioned, Jan was at the end of the existing boardwalk and I was about 30 yards further away photographing small wading birds (future post). The boardwalk ends suddenly because it was severely damaged during Hurricane Ian in September 2022. Parts of the former boardwalk and observation deck were torn free and washed across the causeway into the brackish water basin 1/2 mile away. Park volunteers worked to tow the recovered parts back close to their original location. Repairs have not been completed. Jan was having quite a bit of fun photographing a brown pelican fishing, when one of its friends joined in the melee. That is when my attention shifted from the shorebirds to the twin aircraft approaching.
I was amazed at just how large brown pelicans really are. A brown pelican is nearly as large (with a larger wingspan) than a great blue heron. While the heron looks very stately while it fishes, the brown pelican gets down to business and interacts with its environment. These brown pelicans were a lovely milk chocolate brown color; nearly the same color as the tidal mud. I caught myself watching the pelicans through the viewfinder instead of taking photos.
The wingspan of its cousin, the white pelican, is noticeably larger than the brown pelican (9 feet vs 7 feet). They both like to eat small fish that school near the surface so they can hoover them up in their expansive bill pouches. Both will drain the water from their pouch and then swallow their catch. Each can scoop up to three gallons of water and fish in a single gulp.
The only time pelicans don’t immediately swallow their catch is if they are taking food to their chicks. Here is where the similarity ends. White pelicans will often fish in groups, lining up and flapping their wings as they swim toward shore trapping their quarry. Brown pelicans will scoop when they can, but aren’t opposed to diving into the water for a meal.
I’ve been able to observe two distinct techniques in brown pelican fishing. First, in deeper water, brown pelicans will dive straight into the water from up to 60 feet in the air. (This is the behavior we saw directly off the beach near Ponce, Puerto Rico.) They don’t actually snag the fish in their bills. The impact of their large bodies on the water temporarily stuns the fish which can then be easily scooped up. Second, in shallow tidal basins, brown pelicans fly along the surface of the water leveraging ground effects. In the tidal marsh, they only have 1-2 feet of water to work with so they adopt a very shallow angle of approach. Just before impact, they turn their giant bills sideways. Our photos show about a 50/50 chance between left and right side turns.
This pair were fishing for quite some time, taking turns pouncing and scooping and swallowing. We saw them fishing around 1:30pm as the tide was nearly out.
Brown pelicans keep their wings above the waterline when sideways diving. This makes flight afterwards a bit easier because their feathers are mostly dry and free of mud. It also probably helps prevent injury to their very large wings.
To get airborne from the water, brown pelicans have to “run” across the surface of the water with their large webbed feet. They have to hop the last couple of “steps” by pushing off the water with both feet as their wings gain purchase on the air. Pelicans are very graceful when they are paddling about or gliding through the air. The transition between the two, in either direction, is rather awkward.
Satiated, the pelicans float away for a nap. They were paddling against the tidal current pulling the remaining water from the marsh.
Brown pelicans can easily live for over 20 years, many into their 30s or sometimes 40s. They are monogamous breeders during the season. A mated pair will raise 2-4 chicks until they fledge at about 13 weeks of age. Both parents share nesting duties. Breeding season for brown pelicans is the same time of year as most other wading birds: in the spring. Though in the tropics, the breeding season can be all year round.
Time to fly, nothing more to see here
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more bird photos from our South Carolina winter escape, please visit here.
Credits
Thanks again to Jan and Allyson for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for many of the photos in this article.
Life Intrigued 