White Pelican Release

Check out these photos of me helping release White Pelicans at the refuge here in Sanibel. the release happened before xmas, but we finally got the copies of the pictures from CROW (Care and rehabilitation of wildlife), who facilitated the release of these birds, who were flown down on Northwest from Wisconsin where they were getting trapped in the ice this past fall, having failed to follow their compatriots south when they were supposed to. It's an interesting dilemma, if the birds aren't migrating, should we be helping them on the way? Will they do the same thing next year? Is there a bigger problem that we aren't seeing? It was still a cool experience, and it was amazing to hold such a big bird, who was surprisingly light-weight which demonstrated how birds are so adapted to flight (hollow bones, feathers, bills instead of jaw bones). These guys swam off and joined the rest of the White Pelicans which had flown their own way down here.

hope y'all are having good winters and i'm jealous of those of you who are in snow (truly).