Dave, I was at Knox Marsellus marsh briefly on Saturday morning and I watched the pelican feed while it was swimming across the shallow pool. It would lower its head almost completely underwater while slowly swimming forward. After a few seconds, it would raise its head up and swallow whatever was unfortunate enough to be in its path. It did this multiple times and at one point swallowed on 9 consecutive attempts. I wondered what it was eating, but I could never really see what it was picking up.
Sent from my iPhone Mickey Scilingo 315-679-6299 On Jul 29, 2013, at 12:35 AM, Dave Nutter <nutter.d...@me.com> wrote: > This evening the AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN again spent most of its time standing > and preening, but toward sunset I saw it swim a couple times, then stand in a > new place in the water and preen some more - especially under the wings, > which emphasizes the bizarre shape of this bird. During one of the swims it > also tried feeding by stretching its neck forward low to the water, rotating > its head 90°, and laterally biting the water ahead of it. I did not see it > obviously catch anything, nor did it seem very enthusiastic in this brief > activity. I imagine that a solo bird is at a disadvantage if it typically > feeds with a group of pelicans all herding fish into the shallows before > dipping them up. Such a massive bird must need a lot of food, and I haven't > heard other reports of it feeding. > > Does anyone know who found the American White Pelican on 20 July? Mark Miller > said it was reported to him around 2pm when he was volunteering at the > Montezuma NWR headquarters, but he didn't know the name of reporter or > finder, and no one has reported it to eBird on this date. Earliest observer > gets their name on the Cayuga Lake Basin 2013 First Records list, along with > all the associated fame & glory. > --Dave Nutter > -- > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics > Rules and Information > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > Archives: > The Mail Archive > Surfbirds > BirdingOnThe.Net > Please submit your observations to eBird! > -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
