‘A wonderful bird is the pelican,
Its bill can hold more than its belly can.
It can hold in its beak
Enough food for a week
I simply don’t know how the hell he can.’

The phone rang at 7 am.  As you can tell from the times on my posts, I’m often up until after 3 as I had been on Sunday night.  Three and a half hours of sleep, and I couldn’t have been happier to receive the call.  Derrick Marven had been down to Cowichan Bay, and the pelicans were still there!

Sunday night had, in fact, been a repeat of my previous White Pelican chase;  I had been only about half a kilometre away from the birds, but didn’t see them.   I knew what I had to do!

I rolled out of bed, desparately needing a shower, but that would have to wait.  I grabbed a cup of tea and some fruit and I was heading back to Cowichan less than 12 hours from my last visit.

The traffic lights were with me and I breezed by one, two, three Tim Hortons without even a whiff of temptation to pull me in.  I really wanted these pelicans! By 8:25 I was on the dock road in Cowichan Bay, where Derrick was standing by with the pelicans in sight.

Duly checked, we headed to the other side of the bay for a better look. There were 21 of these seldom seen beauties in the bay.   American White Pelican sightings seem to be increasing on the island, usually as flyovers.  Most people think these are likely from the Stum Lake breeding population.

A walk down Blackly Dike gave us our closest look, but it was clear that these birds were nervous visitors.  Even though we were a long way away, our presence got the attention of a few birds so we stuck to the shrubbery and stayed well back to avoid disturbing them.

On the way down the dike, I tried to dictate an email to the BCVIBIRDS Yahoo group, and hilarity ensued.  The voice to text function couldn’t figure out “Cowichan”, and when I went to hit the delete button, I accidentally bumped the “send” icon.   This is the message that was distributed to the group:

“up to 21 American white pelicans are still present at cow it should be. They can be viewed for a check from the dark road but are likely to be better seeing from good luck the black ed steak doesn’t know that wordll”

What I said was “up to 21 American White Pelicans are still present at Cowichan Bay. They can be viewed for a “check” from the dock road, but are better seen from the Blackly Dike–doesn’t know that word!

I quickly followed up with the correct information and deleted the accidental post, but let’s just say I expect the ribbing to continue indefinitely.

I spent a couple more hours checking the area for other interesting birds, meeting a very cooperative Yellow Warbler along the way.

 

When I arrived at the dock road viewing spot, sure enough, the pelicans were still there.  I posted an update to BCVIBIRDS, but within fifteen minutes, it was already out of date.  A man in a red canoe had beached it on the sandbars in the bay and was walking towards the pelicans. When he saw that he was agitating them, he stopped, but it was too late.  You could almost hear the birds discussing their options. They took off, slowly circling the bay several times to gain height before heading south, likely to go around Mount Tzouhalem.

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This was a very low probability for my year list, so I am very grateful to Steve Large for eBirding them and to Derrick for checking early Monday morning.

On my way back home, I stopped at Panama Flats to see what was happening.  There was a nice flock of Long-billed Dowitchers and several Spotted Sandpipers.  Some of them (presumably the females) were even displaying.

 

Before I had even left the house just after 7, I received a second call. Chris Saunders had seen a Green Heron at Swan Lake.  This is also a bird I will have to work for to add to my list, but more likely than pelicans, so it was going to have to wait.

I headed to Swan Lake late in the day, knowing it could be a long wait.  It was.  In the meantime, I occupied myself by taking photographs of ducklings.

 

The cuteness supply seemed unlimited.

As the sun set, and I was feeling like I’d been here before (waiting for the American Bittern), bullfrogs started to appear and swallows lined up on the boardwalk railings.

 

 

I can’t think of a much prettier place to wait for a bird, which is a good thing, as the heron had not shown by 9:15 pm.  By this time, I was tired and cold and still had to get groceries before I headed home.

None of this mattered.  I had American White Pelicans on my list!