More Birds...

I snapped this photo from a moving car, or maybe Cathy did I can't recall crossing the Lake Livingston Dam. All gates are open and the little white blobs are the white pelicans that you have seen so many times on this blog before. Conventional wisdom tells us that with all gates on the dam pouring water the fish bite is going to be slow. A little internet research tells us these birds need to eat 4 pounds of fish a day.

Here some Sam Rayburn Lake birds as they round a shallow point heading to deeper water. 

They are mixed in with a flock of cormorants. 

Although close to shore that water there is about 30' deep. These birds work together to feed herding various fish and often stealing from other birds like the cormorants. They are not diving feeders.  Note the gull at the top left in the photo swooping in to see what the fuss is about. I note 15 pelicans in this photo They ate 60 pounds of fish out of the lake on this day. I think I ended the day with 8 pounds of fillets. 

More research tells us that the northern most nesting sites from these birds are on the Slave River between Alberta and the Northwest Territories in Canada. The southern most nesting areas are in Southern Wyoming. They usually gather to nest in March and April. I'd say these guys better get going. Maybe they won't. I have heard of a thing called global warming. Might not matter if the are in Canada or Texas. We shall see.