I watched the White Pelican at length yesterday as it was feeding. I couldn't see exactly what it was catching, but its behaviour seemed interesting (at least to me) ...
It was swimming in shallow water which appeared to be less than 10" deep based on cormorants and herons standing nearby. It would repeatedly dip its closed bill in the water by first stretching its neck out and then drawing it back towards its chest through the water, as if it was dredging. On several occasions, the end of the bill carried some muddy weed fragments when it was pulled out of the water, indicating that it was being submerged to or near the bottom of the lake bed. On about 1 out of 5 tries on average, it caught something and then with a quick upward flip of the bill swallowed it. The prey was never airborne as it was being flipped into the pouch (i.e. visible to the eye) and must have been quite small for I never once saw what it was, despite watching the bird catch over 25 prey items! It repeated the "dredging" manoeuvre as frequently as once/second in short bursts of 5-6 times, then rested for 30-120 seconds and repeated the process. It was still hunting when I left. The literature speaks of salamanders, fish, crustaceans, crayfish and the like as food. Was it scraping the shallow mud to dislodge small molluscs or crayfish? - not sure, but I don't think it was catching fish as I would think the bill would have been used more like a shovel than a dredge if that was the case. Any thoughts? email me privately pls. Directions: Exit 401 at Harmony Rd and proceed due south to Wentworth and then east to GM parking lot. Second Marsh is on your right. Bird is visible from platform on east shore of the marsh. Geoff Carpentier www.avocetnatureservices.com _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
