Pelicans are back

Years and years ago I saw my first white pelican, back when the park's bird checklist had it listed as "accidental".  There were 5 of them that summer.  The next summer they came back with a couple of friends.  Then there were 15, then each year more, until, one summer there were more than 100 where the Colorado River enters Shadow Mountain.  I don't think there have been that many in years since then.  Now, each spring we look for them to arrive. 

This morning, on our way to town, we saw a single pelican in the area, over by the islands in Shadow Mountain Lake.  On our way home there were about a half dozen.  Over the next few days I expect we'll see more and more.  I'll get a photo tomorrow - Max had to say home today, so we'll give him a good ride tomorrow and we'll go down to where the pelicans are, and we'll see if there are any yet at Windy Gap, near Granby.

 

We also saw 4 of them in the air in Granby, over the little pond by the railroad overpass.  One of them was a male in breeding plumage -  I could see the "

 

In the news last night there was an interesting piece about pelicans on the Front Range.  Somebody dumped a bunch of goldfish in Teller Lake, near Boulder.  The goldfish thrived.  In the news the goldfish were so thick it was almost more fish than water.  The Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife has been considering how they should clear out the goldfish.  One of the options was electroshock, where the use electric probes to shock the fish and pick out the "bad" fish, leaving the good ones to come to in a little bit.  Another was to poison the lake, then after the water was safe to restock with "good" fish.  Well, a bunch of pelicans have come in and are taking care of the problem.  They arrived at Teller Lake and are eating the goldfish.  One of the lake's neighbors showed how there are not very many fish to see at the lake now.  Sometimes Nature takes care of things in a better way than we would. 

Here's a photo of the 3 that were napping & grooming.  I never saw the bill on the one in the middle - it was deep asleep or ignoring the goings on around it.  The other 2 have the 3"x3"breeding bump on their bills.  Both male & female get them during the breeding season, then they fall off.  With the telephoto lens they look a LOT closer to that shoreline than they really are.