American
White Pelican is a rare vagrant in New England, as it is throughout virtually
all of the eastern US. And in New
England, only rarely do birds stick around long. Often they are seen as one or more high
flying birds passing by on the coast.
Needless to say those birds aren’t chaseable unless you’re already on
the coast and are lucky enough to be able to catch up with them as they head
out of town. As a result, in New England
I’ve only seen White Pelican in MA and RI, and both birds were ones that had luckily
stuck around for a couple days allowing for successful searches.
Then there
was this interesting set of events in December 2018 -
It was
Sunday afternoon, December 9, and at about 2 PM I received a text from Steve
Mirick’s NH rare bird alert that an American White Pelican was reported heading
south from Wells, ME. Very appropriately
Steve suggested it was worth keeping an eye out for the bird in NH. Later in the day an eBird Maine Needs Alert
came across with a White Pelican in York County. The checklist was apparently from a full day
of birding with the listed location being “York County”, and with no details on
the location or time of the Pelican sighting.
Though there was a photo of the bird sitting in dry Spartina
grasses in a coastal marsh somewhere.
Undoubtedly that was the bird reported in Wells which was last seen
heading south. Certainly not chaseable,
right?
Then late in
the afternoon Monday came yet another eBird Maine Needs Alert with a Pelican
sighting. At first I just assumed it was
a second sighting from Sunday, but when I opened the e-mail I realized it was
actually a Monday sighting once again from Wells. The bird was seen swimming in the Webhannet
River – apparently the bird was still around.
The post came across too late to give it a try that day, but it was certainly
worth a try on Tuesday. Especially since
I didn’t go after chaseable White Pelicans (3 of them!) seen in Wells in May earlier
this year.
Tuesday
morning I teamed up with Davis Finch and Mike Beck to search for the Pelican in
Wells, ME. But despite 3 hours scouring
the waters and marshes of the Webhannet River we were unsuccessful. Though it certainly was great to catch up
with Davis and Mike! Oh well – “a day
late and a dollar short” as they say.
Tuesday evening while posting our sightings on eBird I noticed a post on
the NH listserve that a White Pelican was photographed from Odiorne Point State
Park that day. The post was on a
Facebook site and was not posted until dinner time that day. Apparently our target bird was in NH while we
were looking for it in ME - ugh. And
like Monday’s post of the bird in ME, it came across too late to chase that day
in NH. So once again it was time to plan
for a chase the next morning.
Wednesday
morning at 7 I met David Donsker at Odiorne in Rye, NH to look for our target
bird. But once again, I came up
empty. We searched the area around the
Odiorne boat ramp where it was seen on Tuesday, as well as the Odiorne coast
all the way to Frost Point, the New Castle coastline across the river from
Odiorne, and as much of the remaining Newcastle coastline as we could
access. Once again I missed it by a
day.
Tallies from
my 2 unsuccessful chases on consecutive days in 2 states – 7 hours of driving,
5 hours of birding, 0 White Pelicans.
Two days
later, Friday, I was in RI starting my day successfully adding Evening Grosbeak
to my RI list as part of some inland birding in the morning. That afternoon while doing a rather
unremarkable seawatch from Point Judith, RI I got a text from Steve Mirick that
the White Pelican had been re-found in New Castle, NH. Even if I left that second I wouldn’t be able
to make it to New Castle before dark. My
original plan was to spend the night in RI and participate in a Christmas Count
the next morning. But earlier in the day
I had decided to pass on the CBC since I had come down with a pretty miserable
cold. Though my cold wasn’t bad enough to
prevent me from chasing after a potential state bird! Once again I planned an early morning trip to
try for the Pelican – once again time back on the NH coast.
The bird had
been seen on Friday from the “green bridge” – a narrow 2-lane metal bridge on
Route 1B that takes you onto the island that makes up the majority of the town
of New Castle. It was also seen in the
marina just east and south of that bridge.
But there was no place to pull over while on the bridge. And the marina was private property requiring
permission to access. And did I mention
that there are almost no public parking spots in the area? Needless to say this could be a challenge.
At 7:10
Saturday morning, 12/15, while I was still in route to New Castle, I got a text
from Steve that the Pelican was still there, seen from just west of the metal
bridge. Twenty minutes later I turned
onto Route 1B, and luckily at that time of the day there was almost no traffic. As I neared the green bridge there were no
cars in sight behind me, so I was able to come to a full stop on the bridge. I quickly looked to the right (south) where
all of Friday’s sightings had been, but there was no bird. Then I took a bit longer scan of the water
and shorelines below but still no bird.
Then I made a quick look at the bit of the marina that is visible from
the bridge, but again came up empty. I
was starting to worry. Then I looked to
the left, and peering between the bridge railings, I could see a large white
bird swimming in the estuary to the north.
A quick binoc view confirmed I had the White Pelican!
I pulled
ahead and parked in an “almost-legal” parking space, and there was the Pelican
right in front of me. Here’s a shot of
the bird with no magnification.
And here’s a
phonescoped photo of this most cooperative bird.
Third time
was the charm!
In
subsequent days the bird was routinely being seen near the green bridge, and on
the southern New Castle coast line opposite Odiorne. Both of these areas were places David and I
checked on Wednesday. We also checked
the edges of the marina as well, though couldn’t see into the center of the
marina where even a large white bird could easily hide behind a boat and out of
sight. I wouldn’t be surprised if the
Pelican was there all along, though I doubt that David and I overlooked
it. Instead I bet it was hanging out at
the marina out of view when we were searching for it earlier in the week. In any case, good thing that it stuck around
for many to see it.
American
White Pelican was #369 for me in NH, and my 36th state for this species which is
prone to vagrancy across the US (see my statebird map below).
And now for
a post-script –
At 3:30 in the
afternoon of the 24th a (the?) White Pelican was spotted in Falmouth, ME – 50
miles (as the Pelican flies) northeast of New Castle. The last eBird post of this bird in New
Castle was at 11 AM on the 24th. Was
this the same bird, flying 50 miles to the northeast that day to return to the
ME coast? Or have there been 2 birds all
along – one preferring the NH coast and a second bird that never left the
southern ME coast? The Pelican was not
found in NH on the 25th, but one was seen in Portland, ME that morning, though
just for a couple hours before flying out of sight. So it’s looking more likely that it is indeed
just one bird and not two. Is it too
late to ask for a chaseable Pelican in ME for Christmas? Stay tuned…
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