When I first moved to Colorado nearly 30 years ago, I found myself amused at the sight of gulls circling over the parking lot of the former Crossroads Mall in Boulder. Having grown up on the east coast with countless beach vacations, it seemed such an odd sight in a land-locked state so very far away from any ocean or bay. My preconceived (and very wrong) notions of these birds living solely on coastlines had me joking that they had somehow ended up WAY off course. I thought they must have gotten caught in the haze of a CU 4/20 gathering, and became too lazy to go back to the home coast.

Many years later I found myself correcting another assumption with a similarly themed view of another bird originally thought to be only found along coasts, the American White Pelican. I was on a walkabout at Walden Ponds east of Boulder with a dear friend and photography mentor (and Boulder native). We stumbled across a “raft” of the large birds fishing in one of the ponds. I laughed at the sight, but my friend’s response was one of surprise at my inaccurate beliefs. He had life-long memories of these birds coming and going from the wetlands that dot the plains.

Unlike the brown pelicans who prefer to stay around salt water, the white cousins can be found throughout much of the country where there is an ample supply of open water. Come winter, most head to warmer coasts. Even in the most frigid months some intrepid travelers can still be seen making stops at larger bodies of water that aren’t completely frozen over from which to feed. White pelicans do not dive to fish like their brown cousins. Instead they gather in flocks on the water’s surface called rafts. They work as a group to “herd” fish with their webbed feet, then dip under like a dabbling duck to scoop up their quarry. Even in the most frigid temperatures they will employ this technique if there is a hole in the ice from which to access the tasty fish below.

This brings me to the encounter seen in the photo, captured at the end of January a few years ago. The waters of Barr Lake see the comings and goings of all manner of water birds even in the winter. It was quite a treat to watch as small groups, or squadrons, of these great birds came and went. The pelican can seem a very ungainly bird in any situation, but landing and maneuvering on ice was a particularly comical event to witness. If you’ve ever seen a pelican take off, they seem to run on the surface of the water as their wings pump heavily to gain lift of a heavy body. One might easily imagine the opposite as these large birds come back to aqua firma. These birds almost exclusively land on water, so it was added comedy as they came down on the hard surface. They don’t exactly have brakes, they usually use the water to slow their approach. A group would come in, and the touchdown was more of a wild scramble of webbed feet and wings that sent them skittering across the ice until gravity and friction brought them to a halt.

The three seen here were part of a small flock of about a dozen that were taking turns circling above. They were likely looking for an ideal patch of unfrozen water from which they could all gather in a raft to fish. Even the simple act of walking on the ice, like any animal including humans, was pure comedy as they stepped gingerly across the frozen surface. I imagined the bald eagle in the background was having a bit of a laugh, as the gawky and awkward trio navigated the frigid terrain seeming to beg for a non-slip surface. A perfect example that not only does nature provide something incredible to learn from on a regular basis, but it can also have a very funny side as well!

For additional information about James DeWalt Photography, check out https://jamesdewaltphotography.com.