RESTING ON ONALASKA FLATS

     In spring, migrant American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, ring-billed gulls and Caspian terns rest together on mud flats in Lake Onalaska, a backwater off the Mississippi River in Wisconsin.  All these handsome birds migrate along rivers because they catch fish, each species in its own way.  And I see these many birds at Onalaska through a live camera and our home computer screen.

     White pelicans are large, an appear clumsy on land.  But they are elegant and graceful on water and in flight.  They often fly in long, undulating lines and soar gracefully together on high.  Their flights are expressions of grace and beauty that one has to see to appreciate.

     When feeding, a group of white pelicans herds schools of small fish into shallow water where all the pelicans together, as if on cue, dip their large beaks into those shallows to scoop up as many little fish as they can into their pouches.  They continue that process until they are full, or run out of fish.

     Each cormorant catches individual, larger fish by diving underwater from the surface and snaring its prey in its beak, then bobbing to the surface to swallow it.  Cormorants don't compete directly with pelicans for fish because of the size of the prey they take.  This species often flies strongly in long, picturesque lines low to the water's surface to get to various fishing spots.

     Hundreds of migrant ring-billed gulls look small when gathered together with pelicans and cormorants on Onalaska's flats.  There the often-noisy gulls, too, rest between close-by feeding trips and pushing northward to their nesting territories.  Being gulls, ring-bills catch individual, small fish from the water's surface, and scavenge dead fish and other edibles from the river, flats and surrounding countryside.  And being gulls, ring-bills are stately and graceful on the water and aloft.  They often form large, swirling flocks in the wind, or thermals, on high.  

     Caspian terns are the largest of terns in North America, about the size of ring-bills.  And small groups of this kind of terns, with striking, red beaks and black caps, often rest with flocks of ring-billed gulls on mid-river flats, perhaps due to safety in the gull's numbers.  

     Like all terns, Caspians hunt fish by circling over rivers and lakes, and hovering into the wind on beating wings, while watching the water's surface for potentially vulnerable victims.  When prey is spotted from the air, the tern dives beak-first into the water, with a splash, and grabs its victim in its bill.  The tern surfaces and flies off to ingest its meal.            

     These birds bring additional, stately life to river flats in spring.  They help make trips to rivers and lakes more exciting and enjoyable.

        

  

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