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Success on Pelican



Dear Carolinabirders:
This morning I managed to tempt Joshua Rose away from his work to go look
for the WHite Pelican on Falls Lake. The lure I used on Josh was
home-baked biscotti, and he succumbed surprisingly easily. So at eight
this morning we headed out to various points on the lake. We first hit the
Cheek Road causeway which was simply humming with land birds: Red Bellied
Woodpecker, lots of flickers, a sharpie flying overhead and a red
shouldered hawk slouching about on the lake shore. In the lake itself were
Pied Billed Grebes, DC Cormorants, Bonaparte's Gulls and a veritable
convention of GB Herons. But no other grebes. 

We then headed out to the train tracks off of highway 15 which run along
the lake shore north of the I-85 bridge (visible from bridge as you look
north). Again the rail roads were humming with birds: Winter Wrens
chattering, Bluebirds feeding on pokeberries, a song sparrow singing
oddly, white throated sparrows, a pine and a palm warbler and one immature
male yellowthroat, a couple of killdeer and a large flock of
cormorants. But no pelican.

So we grumpily decided to go lick our wounds in a nearby mexican
restaurant, and just as we were drving back over the I-85 bridge Josh
spotted a huge white blob on the mud-bank about a third of the way over
the bridge and to the north of it. THis spot should have been perfectly
visible from where we were earlier on the rail tracks. But somehow we had
completely missed the blob. I was out of the car in a flash even though
the signs said "emergency stopping only". I convinced Josh that this
really did count as an emergency and so he, after a decorous pause, also
emerged to set up the scope. THe blob then moved slightly and grew a
bright yellow bill. We both jumped for joy and gave each other
high-fives. A state bird for both of us.

The plans for further birding were abandoned as we repaired to a Honduran
restaurant to wash down the pelican with some horchata and tamales.

No, you do not need a scpe to enjoy or find this bird. I was perfectly
content to watch him with my 8 power binocs. And he didn't look as if he
were about to move anytome soon, for after he was done preenign himself he
settled back down into being the formless white blob that he had been
earlier. This was at 11:30 am today. 

Shantanu Phukan

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SHANTANU PHUKAN
Lecturer in Urdu-Hindi & Indian Literature
University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
Curriculum in Asian Studies
Alumni Hall 413C
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599

phukan@email.unc.edu
919-962-6825
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