Pelicans on Lake Montello

Last Sunday when we were on our way to Dodgeville Wisconsin, we went through Montello Wisconsin.  Montello is about 10 miles from our house.  As we were driving along, we saw about 6 pelicans flying above us.  Every year we see a few either flying in a small group over our house or in the other direction on Green Lake.  As we looked over to Lake Montello we saw some white birds.  I thought they were Egrets, and we continued on our way.  We kind of forgot about it and then on Tuesday we decided to drive over to get a closer look.  We drove to the small town of Packwaukee to look on Buffalo Lake.  The lake is almost dried up, and all we saw were a few egrets.

Buffalo Lake is almost dried up except for small pools of water.

An Egret

We continued back into Montello and stopped at the boat landing outside of town.  Off in the distance this is what I saw.

See the two groups of white birds off in the distance.

I zoomed in and saw them a little better but not good enough.

We thought we would look for a road which would put us a little closer to them.  As we were going down the road peeking between houses for a glimpse, we saw my cousin, her husband and daughter in the car behind us.  They had been out looking for them also.  As we were talking a man came out to his mailbox and allowed us walk out on his pier to look.  We couldn't see them so we headed back.  As we were looking between the houses again, we saw they really were pelicans and they were flying toward town.

They were flying in waves to a new location.

My cousin called us and said they were landing in a bay near a park in town. When we pulled in, there they were.  What an amazing sight. There were hundreds of pelicans in a small area.  They are probably migrating and took a little different route this year.  I was able to get quite close.  It was a thrill to see.