This last Sunday I was up at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers just north of St. Louis. I saw several flocks of what I thought were really quiet Snow Geese. The silence is what finally tipped me they were American White Pelicans.
The pelicans are migrating, though many of them will stay here through the winter if a sufficient amount of water remains open for them to fish. Migrating pelicans, gulls and eagles congregate below the river's locks and dams since the water is nearly always flowing and these seem to be very good places to fish.
I saw the pelicans settling on the Mississippi below the Melvin Price Locks and Dam (lock #26). I drove over at the end of the day. I watched them fish in the turbulent, channelized water just below the dam's gates. I noticed that whitewater kayakers and the pelicans read and use the currents to their advantage in similar ways. The pelicans ride atop recirculating waves and float in small eddies fishing in the passing currents. They also use the eddy lines to carry them upriver. The birds ride up on the eddy line, peel off into the current, float backwards while fishing until they reach the end of line and catch a ride back up.
The pelicans floated downriver beyond the still air of the cement canyon formed by the locks and dam and took off into the wind. They are big birds weiging up to 30 pounds with wingspans exceeding 9 feet. They headed north, upriver to roost.
I get a kick out of the collective nouns for birds. Pelicans have serveral, including a "brief", "pouch", "scoop" and "squadron" of pelicans.
I saw several wading birds, a few divers and shore birds, including: Great Blue Herons; one Green Heron tucked in the grass where the lock's parking lot ends and a hardwood wetland begins; Snowy Egrets in the flooded corners of farm fields; Double Crested Cormorants standing on rocks above the dam which I think are the remains of the old lock 26; Killdeer; diving ducks, probably Ring-Necks but they were too far to say for sure; and various gulls and sand pipers which I can't identify for sure either. I saw one adult Bald Eagle, a local, perched on a light standard in the lock facility on the Illinois side. The setting sun reflected off of the eagle's white head is what caught my eye. In the coming months many eagles will be fishing on this stretch of the river. They will pluck fish from waters below the dam gates and from the wakes of barge tows. The Trumpeter Swans will be arriving about the same time.
What are you seeing headed south for the winter? Are you looking forward to the return of any birds in particular? As you might guess, I am.
