Pelicans Passing Through

I can't believe it's Friday already.  This has been the best summer in a long time as far as the weather.  I love the cooler temperatures.  Early in the week it was very hot, but that only lasted a couple days.  Now we are back to the 70's, exactly where I like it.  We could use some rain for our stream and pond.  Even though our pond is nearly gone, we had enough water to host a beautiful sight.

Here they come, can you tell what they are?

At first when I saw these birds come in, I thought it was a Whooping Crane.  At least I was hoping that was what they were.  They had a large white wingspan with black on the edges.  I got out the binoculars to get a better look.  They were Pelicans.  Pretty soon, more and more landed.  They landed in a small body of water that is left of our pond.

I didn't get an exact count, but there are at least 30 and maybe as many as 50.

They played around practicing take offs and landings.

These were not the cranes I was hoping for, but pretty exciting to see.  They stayed all afternoon and evening and then spent the night.  In the morning when I got up, they were gone.  I don't know where they came from or where they were going, I'm just glad they decided to spend a little time here.

Last fall even more Pelicans landed in Montello Wisconsin.  That time there were hundreds of them.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/10/pelicans-on-lake-montello.html