Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Rare Bird Alert--Brown Pelican at Lake Wichita

Photo of brown pelican courtesy of Calibas, Wikimedia Commons.


Last Friday I got an email with a rare bird alert from Terry McKee with the North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club. Robert from Texas Parks and Wildlife contacted Terry with the news.





I was out of town on Friday and had to teach class on Saturday, so didn't have a chance to go look for the brown pelican until Sunday morning. Of course, I was thinking it would be just my luck the bird would be gone already, and I would have missed him. But there he was, on the pier next to the spillway, where the pavillion used to be. Since I broke my camera on a previous outing and haven't yet replaced it, I didn't get a photo. I did attempt a photo will my cell phone, but the bird was too far out for a decent picture. Robert did take some photos on the 10th to document the bird. If I can get his OK to post one of his picures, I'll do that in the next couple of days.





The brown pelican is a threatened species. Although I have seen them along the coast, they are listed as accidental in the North Central Texas checklist. We have lots of white pelicans Fall - Spring, but not the brown. It is very posible the bird arrived with the Hurricane Hermine front that came through last Thursday.





I also saw my first pied-billed grebes of the season and my first orchard orioles.

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