DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A familiar flyer has returned to the waterways of Northeast Wisconsin.
The American White Pelican is one of the biggest birds around, and the Green Bay area is one of the best places to watch the birds in action.
DNR District Wildlife Supervisor Jeff Pritzl tells WLUK the birds have actually been around for weeks.
“A few pelicans showed up already in the end of February. So they started trickling back in as soon as we had open water”
With an abundant fish supply and choice nesting grounds in the waters of Green Bay, Pritzl says the pelican has made itself right at home in Northeast Wisconsin.
“It’s not uncommon for the pelican colonies to have hundreds of nests all together, and so, we’ve had as many as a thousand birds in one nesting colony”
Pritzl says in all, there are about 2400 nesting pairs in the Bay.
“They have rather specific needs for their nesting colonies, and most of those places are occupied now. So, I think the population is stabilizing” There are two species of pelicans in North America.
Biologists say many may be familiar with the Brown Pelican, which lives near the ocean, and typically dives out of the sky to catch fish below the surface, but the White Pelican has a much different strategy.
“They’ll hunt from the air, looking for schools of fish. But once they see that school, they’ll come down and land. And rather than individually dive, and try to grab fish, they work together and just kind of form a line and try to drive that school of fish into an area where it’s easier for them to capture”
Pritzl says the synchronized scooping should continue all summer long.
“I think White Pelicans fall in the category of what we refer to in general, as a group of charismatic fauna. Big animals that are interesting to look at”
Pelicans are living in other areas too, including The Lake Winnebago System, Horicon Marsh in Dodge County, and near the Mississippi River in Southwest Wisconsin.
The birds are expected to be in the area until late November.
