Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!emory!mephisto!prism!sun13!sun16.scri.fsu.edu!sandee
From: sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Could I Have Seen a Pelican?
Message-ID: <896@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 90 12:46:39 GMT
References: <10593@scorn.sco.COM> <1990Oct2.174924@Unify.com>
Sender: news@sun13.scri.fsu.edu
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University
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In article <1990Oct2.174924@Unify.com> grp@Unify.com (Greg Pasquariello) writes:

>In article <10593@scorn.sco.COM>, jcohen@sco.COM (Jon Cohen) writes:
== I grew up on the South shore of Long Island, where pelicans--to 
== my knowledge--are never seen. Yet, I am almost sure I saw a 
== pelican in my backyard (I lived only a few blocks from the beach) 
== when I was a small child. I looked up in this big chestnut 
== tree--and there it was! I ran inside to tell my parents, but 
== when they came to look, the pelican was gone.
== I wonder if anyone knows about the range of pelicans 
== on the Atlantic coast, and whether it's possible that  
== I saw a pelican after all. 

Both Brown and White pelicans are accidental in New York. Within a few blocks
of the coast, a Brown Pelican is much more likely. You should be able to
remember if it was brown or white.
[Greg:]
>
>The really odd thing about your siting, was that the pelican was
>in a tree.  Pelicans don't have feet that are well adapted to
>perching on things like tree limbs.  They are usually found
>perched on flat surfaces.  Also, even though you were only a 
>few blocks from the shore, I have _never_ seen (or even heard
>of) a pelican that wasn't immediatly on the water!

Brown Pelicans habitually sit on power lines. They kind of wrap their
feet around them ; a common sight along bridges on Florida coasts.
I once saw a White Pelican sitting halfway up an Australian Pine - a weird
sight but the bird seemed to like it.
The only unlikely part of the story is that a Brown Pelican would go sit in a
suburban tree even a few blocks from the beach. There must have been a gale or
something.
>
>What are some other possibilities?  Well, probably the most
>likely is a Great Blue Heron.  I can easily imagine a heron
>looking like a "pelican" to a small child.  My wife (who is
>certainly no birder) once yelled "There's a pelican"... in 
>a deep wooded swamp in Northern NJ.  It was a Great Blue.

And Great Blues are often called cranes by dumb tourists, as well as pelicans,
and even flamingo's.

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052  (904) 644-7045