Pelicans On Taneycomo

[Phil Lilley]

I'm about 90% sure these were big white pelicans. They were really wanting to land on the lake. I was at the boat ramp and there were people at the gauntlet-- no one between us so there was plenty of water there but they just didn't want to commit.

I've seen them on Bull Shoals before but never here.

[fishinwrench]

You just made me realize that the pelicans have been absent here this year. Usually they are here before now and stay until the spring floods. Haven't seen a single one yet.

[dtrs5kprs]

Yep. Used to be hundreds of them on the big lakes in the Des Moines River chain in the fall. Can't imagine they would be a positive on a trout river.

[Feathers and Fins]

Yupper them are Belycans. Been a bunch on Beaver Lately.

[Outside Bend]

Pretty cool!

[vonreed]

I think I seen those above the Branson strip by Celebration City yesterday. They were way up high flying around and I couldn't tell what they were. Looked like white buzzards.

[Al Agnew]

Saw some on the Osage back in December. We see them all the time in the spring on the Yellowstone in Montana. They roost on the gravel island in front of our house, and they do "float trips" down the river for hours on end. They go into the water off that gravel bar and go floating downstream out of sight around the bend, and then a half hour later here they come flying back up the river to the gravel bar, land, and do it all over again. Wish we could do shuttles like that!

[cnr]

Just looked up some information about the American White Pelican. They have a wingspan from 8-10 feet! Dang, that's a big bird.

[Phil Lilley]

They were BIG even that far up. Wish I could of seen them up closer.

[Mitch f]

On the Winnipeg river in western Ontario we used to fish a lake in the river chain that had a reef that for some reasons the pelicans gathered day after day. When you got with a quarter mile you could smell it. The rocks on the reef were disgusting. Sometimes after shore lunch all the gulls and pelicans would wait for us to leave and devour the leftovers. They would patiently wait about 30-40 yards away like a scene from the Hitchcock movie.