Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
As one of the seven species of pelican in the world, the Brown Pelican shares the oversized beak and gular pouch along with its relatives, but it’s one of the smallest of the group. Some have referred to it as being comically elegant, and it’s easy to see why that description fits well. This paradox is accentuated due to the fact that it has webbing between all four of its toes making it an excellent swimmer, but a very awkward walker on land. However, it excels in the air where it is as graceful in flight as it is clumsy on land. It differs from its cousin, the White Pelican in that it dives for its food, sometimes from 60 feet or more in the air, ending with a barrel roll just before hitting the water which may completely submerge it. But it momentarily pops to the surface with its throat pouch full of water and fish. The water is then spilled from the edges of the beak before it swallows its prey.
This difficult maneuver is not easily accomplished as the results show. While fledging success may be as high as 100% for the first chick hatched from a brood of three, the challenges facing it have just begun. Evidently the adults don’t teach the young how to fish, and this must be acquired through instinct, trial, and error. This may take a year to accomplish, and the mortality rate for these first year birds runs between 70 and 90% due to the complexity of learning to dive.
Fortunately for us, we are not left without teaching and forced to resort to a trial and error approach. God realized our need and spoke to Aaron concerning this: “and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.” Leviticus 10:11 NIV) Apparently He realized just giving the law was not enough for slow-minded mankind, we needed to be taught it as well. Thank God for His willingness to use people like faulty Aaron.