Richard Moore Outdoor Report: Avian Winter Texans

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The Rio Grande Valley is a prime destination for avian winter visitors, and flocks of American white pelicans annually take up residence on coastal wetlands and local resacas.

Gliding gracefully aloft in swirling kettles of hundreds with their majestic wings spread wide, the vanguard of white pelicans usually arrives by mid-October.

White pelicans are among the largest birds in North America with their nearly ten-foot wingspan and weighing some 15 to 20 pounds, but despite their impressive size, they are enchantingly elegant fliers.

Unlike brown pelicans, American white pelicans do not dive but rather swim leisurely along dipping their large pouched bills as they scoop up fish.

When piscine prey is plentiful, white pelicans gather in hundreds, but they normally congregate in small groups cooperatively corralling schools of fish, and each bird can easily consume more than four pounds of fish daily.

Southward down the beach at the mouth of the Rio Grande, with the Mexican lighthouse looming in the distance, scores of white pelicans fish for breakfast where the river meets the gulf.

Paddling into the surf, they dip their bills in unison and encountering initial waves gracefully turn and take flight back upriver where they land and repeat the process…once again riding the flowing river toward the surf and scooping up fish along the way.

On occasion, rather than pirouette and take immediate flight back, they choose to ride the waves. You just can’t help but believe these wave-riding pelicans are having fun, as they enjoy a little Tex-Mex surfing at the mouth of the Rio Grande.

Our snow-white winter visitors are equally at home from the Laguna Madre to local resacas, and it is a pleasure to admire these magnificent birds as they perform their wonderfully choreographed aquatic ballets throughout Valley waterways.