Brown Pelican Plunge-Fishing; Whooping Crane Watching [View all]

Brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), are the only pelicans in the Northern Hemisphere that engage in this violent plunging maneuver to catch fish. In fact, it can best be described (in anthropomorphic terms) as a death-defying high-dive into a neck-breaking water plunge. It makes my neck hurt to watch them.

Back from near-extinction in the 1960s & 1970s from DDT runoff related issues (read Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" - published on September 27, 1962), the Brown pelicans' conservation status is now "least concern (population increasing)." The species is ubiquitous along the Texas coastal waters in the Winter.

Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
Texas Gulf Coast - February 2024
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