"SO WHY ARE WE HERE??"

American White Pelican - 9 Photos

So it's May in Calgary, Alberta, CA. It's been cold & snowy. Now that's changed to extremely windy & rainy, with temperatures still below seasonal.

The photos below are a group or pod of American White Pelicans, probably only recently arrived from places well south of the Canadian border. All were pure white with bumps on their bills, showing they are all breeding adults.

To say they did not look happy would be an understatement, particularly when they were all huddled together, heads down trying to minimize the impact of the cold wind.

One can only imagine, the conversations between birds, "Why are we here? and "Whose bright idea was it to migrate this far north?"

Don't worry, pelicans, the weather is supposed to warm up significantly later this week and there are plenty of fish in the river.

And I believe it is their breeding finery, but I love the stark white colouring of the pelicans, topped off literally with their spiky feather headdresses. They almost have an egret appearance.

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