Birds - American White Pelicans

Had a surprise encounter with a large flotilla of American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) on the road to Vancouver Lake Regional Park. White Pelican are seasonal visitors in SW Washington. According to Wikipedia, White pelicans are a large aquatic soaring bird that breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Central America and South America, in winter. Preferred habitats include shallow lakes and coastal lagoons.

Note: The Trump administration recently finalized its deconstruction of clean water rules that protect wetlands such as this. The new rules would limit or remove protections for vernal pools or ephemeral bodies of water that appear during the rainy season.

As a result, polluters will no longer need a permit to discharge harmful substances into these bodies of water. Developing or polluting these areas could destroy critical habitat for species that depend on vernal pools for water and food.

According to The Center for Biological Diversity, the new rules could accelerate the extinction of more than 75 species. Polluting these ephemeral bodies of water and wetlands could also have impacts on drinking water. An EPA study found that 1 in 3 Americans get some of their drinking water from ephemeral bodies of water.