Yesterday at 5:30 pm, the three American White Pelicans (AWPE) were still on their favorite perch at the east end of the Cowan Lake, easily visible from the boat ramp at the east end of the south side. Alan Claybon was also there. Alan has a good picture of the pelicans on the OOS Forum site, along with two stunning pictures of a Bald Eagle taking a Ruddy Duck at Cowan earlier in the week. Rick Asamoto has some excellent pictures of the pelicans foraging, but I do not know if they are available on a public site. Larry Gara, the corporate memory of Cowan and Caesar Creek, can recall a previous record at Cowan in 1986. It seems to me that AWPE is pretty much an annual visitor to Buck Creek State Park. Perhaps Doug Overacker or Brian Menker can give a more learned opinion. At least one of the Cowan pelicans has a comb-like projection on the ridge of the upper mandible. According to Peter Pyle ("Identfication Guide to North American Birds," vol 2), this is called a "keratinous appendage" and is not acquired until the fourth year. This is interesting because in the opinion of many leading ornithologists, the principal cause of errant birds is inexperience. Vagrancy is much more prevalent in birds that are making the trip for the first time. However, the presence of the keratinous appendage indicates that at least one of the Cowan birds should have known better. Cheers, Bob -- Robert D Powell Congress Farm Research Institute Wilmington, OH, USA [log in to unmask] http://rdp1710.wordpress.com Nulla dies sine aves ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]