Pelicans Up-River
While we don’t have dramatic seasonal changes in coastal Alabama, if a person pays attention there are definite shifts that result from changing weather patterns. I notice these while paddling my SUP board on the Magnolia River.
When cooler nights and days became the norm and the winds shifted, pelicans moved up-river. They hang out on boat house roofs, on channel markers, piers and they have quickly learned that people = food. I’ve seen them begging fish from local residents who clean fish on their docks. This morning I saw several gathering around a pier where guys were sitting and visiting on their dock.
Another seasonal change is that the river water is clearer and quite a bit shallower as the north winds push water out of Weeks and Mobile Bays. Magnolia River, being a tidal river, flows outward and offers a challenge for me at low tide during this time of year as I paddle through large, submerged rocks.
Cormorants are constant companions as they dive for fish and do their running take-off on the water’s surface–winter visitors who fly south for a few months of warmer weather before returning to cooler climates to raise young.
No, there’s no snow and we haven’t had temperatures below freezing yet but the pelicans up-river are a sure sign winter is here.
3 Replies to “Pelicans Up-River”
It would be quite different to live in an area where seasonal change is so subtle.
It is quite different to re-adjust to living here on the Alabama Gulf Coast. For the past 20 or so years I’ve been in North Carolina and during that period of time, the past six years were spent on a mountain in Asheville. It has caused me to pay closer attention to other signals of seasonal change besides temperature alone.
That certainly added some variety.