'A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican'
This memorable quote is often attributed to the humorist Ogden Nash, but it is actually the first two lines of a limerick penned by American poet, and also humorist, Dixon Lanier Merritt.
The rest of Merritt's limerick goes:
'He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week
But I'm damned if I see how the helican!'
Image above is of a brown pelican flying. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_pelican_in_flight_(Bodega_Bay).jpg#/media/File:Brown_pelican_in_flight_(Bodega_Bay).jpg
Pelicans are wonderful birds, as shown in the video episode 'Pelican Survivors' in the Georgia Outdoors series. The episode focuses on the pelican breeding colony on Egg Island, a protected habitat just north of St. Simons Island on the Georgia Coast. Egg Island is part of the Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge, established on big and little Egg Islands at the mouth of the Altamaha River in 1930 as a migratory bird sanctuary.
Brown pelicans are the only pelicans seen along the Georgia coast. Even with its six to eight foot wingspan, the brown pelican is the smallest of all pelican species. It uses its sharp eyesight to spot a fish swimming, and then dives into the water to scoop up the fish in its expandable throat pouch. The brown is the only pelican known to dive in this way to catch its dinner.
The 'Pelican Survivors' episode highlights the fact that during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, brown pelicans drenched in tarry hydrocarbons were captured in Louisiana, cleaned, tagged with identifying markers, and then sent to Georgia to be released so they wouldn't get re-oiled. Biologists assumed that these birds would eventually fly home to the Gulf, but surprisingly some of the relocated pelicans stayed to establish nests in the colony on Egg Island. These pelicans also defied expectations by successfully producing healthy chicks.
Pelicans are indeed amazing!