Conserving wildlife, is ensuring that future generations can enjoy our natural world and the incredible species that live within it.

This Brown Pelican just snatched up a beautiful speckled trout from the bayou. I am blessed every day here in SW Louisiana to be a part of this beautiful wildlife arena.

The Brown Pelican is a comically elegant bird with an oversized bill, sinuous neck, and big, dark body. Squadrons glide above the surf along southern and western coasts, rising and falling in a graceful echo of the waves. They feed by plunge-diving from high up, using the force of impact to stun small fish before scooping them up. They are fairly common today—an excellent example of a species’ recovery from pesticide pollution that once placed them at the brink of extinction.

Adult Brown Pelicans are gray-brown birds with yellow heads and white necks. In breeding plumage, the back and sides of the neck turn a rich, dark reddish-brown. Immatures are gray-brown above (including the head and neck) with pale whitish belly and breast.

Brown Pelicans feed by plunging into the water, stunning small fish with the impact of their large bodies and scooping them up in their expandable throat pouches. When not foraging, pelicans stand around fishing docks, jetties, and beaches or cruise the shoreline. In flight, lines of pelicans glide on their broad wings, often surfing updrafts along wave faces or cliffs. Their wingbeats are slow, deep, and powerful.

• While the Brown Pelican is draining the water from its bill after a dive, gulls often try to steal the fish right out of its pouch—sometimes while perching on the pelican's head. Pelicans themselves are not above stealing fish, as they follow fishing boats and hang around piers for handouts.
• Pelicans incubate their eggs with the skin of their feet, essentially standing on the eggs to keep them warm. In the mid-twentieth century the pesticide DDT caused pelicans to lay thinner eggs that cracked under the weight of incubating parents. After nearly disappearing from North America in the 1960s and 1970s, Brown Pelicans made a full comeback thanks to pesticide regulations.
• The closely related Peruvian Pelican lives along the Pacific Coast of South America from southern Ecuador to Chile. It’s a little larger than a Brown Pelican, with fine white streaking on its underparts and a blue pouch in the breeding season. These two species are the only pelicans that plunge-dive for their food.
• During a dive, the Brown Pelican tucks its head and rotates its body to the left. This maneuver is probably to cushion the trachea and esophagus—which are found on the right side of the neck—from the impact.

To find Brown Pelicans, head to the southern coasts of the US (Atlantic, Gulf, or Pacific) and look for huge birds gliding low over the water—check nearby gulls and cormorants as a size reference. These birds plunge into the water to feed. The huge splashes they make can, from out of the corner of your eye, look like a whale’s spout. If you see a splash, look for the bird on the water’s surface as it drains water from its throat pouch, or scan for other pelicans circling around to dive in the same spot. If you can’t find pelicans over the water, head to a jetty, mudflat, or estuary to look for groups of them resting.

The brilliant red of a male Northern Cardinal calls attention to itself when males are around. You can also find cardinals by getting a sense of the warm, red-tinged brown of females – a pattern you can learn to identify in flight. Away from backyards, cardinals are still common but inconspicuous owing to their affinity for dense tangles. Listen for their piercing chip notes to find where they are hiding.

Nearly any bird feeder you put out ought to attract Northern Cardinals (as long as you live within their range), but they particularly seem to use sunflower seeds. Leave undergrowth in your backyard or around the edges, and you may have cardinals nesting on your property.

• The male cardinal fiercely defends its breeding territory from other males. When a male sees its reflection in glass surfaces, it frequently will spend hours fighting the imaginary intruder.
• A perennial favorite among people, the Northern Cardinal is the state bird of seven states.
• The oldest recorded Northern Cardinal was a female, and was 15 years, 9 months old when she was found in Pennsylvania.
• Only a few female North American songbirds sing, but the female Northern Cardinal does, and often while sitting on the nest. This may give the male information about when to bring food to the nest. A mated pair shares song phrases, but the female may sing a longer and slightly more complex song than the male.

Pictures by Jeff

The Willet is a large shorebird that can be easily recognized by its distinctive calls and wing markings. They have a bold white and black stripe running the length of each wing. Although their plumage can vary, they have a chunky shape and a thick, long bill. Willets can be found along beaches, mudflats, and rocky shores on most of the coastline. They feed both during the day and at night using the sensitive tips of their bills. Willets were once a popular food and their eggs were considered tasty. Due to market hunting, by the early 1900s, Willets had almost vanished north of Virginia. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 protected the Willet and marked the start of their comeback. Breeding Willets have subtle differences in ecology, shape, and calls depending on their location. Western Willets breed in freshwater habitats and are slightly larger and paler gray. Eastern Willets have stouter bills and more barring on their chest and back. Both parents incubate the eggs but only the male spends the night on the nest. Willets will also pretend to be injured in order to draw predators away from their eggs or chicks. Willets build their nests on the ground along pond edges or other seasonal wetlands. The male initiates nest building by scraping out a small depression with his feet and breast in the grass, on beach sand, or on bare ground. If the nest is built in grass, the female pulls in surrounding vegetation to hide the nest site, lining the nest cup with finer grasses and pebbles. If built on bare ground, the birds bring grass from a distance to line the scrape. The finished nest is just over 6 inches across and 2 inches deep.