Surprise! 75 miles from the nearest gulf beach and we have pelicans in our yucky retention ponds. White pelicans no less, not the Common brown ones that we’ve seen in Galveston, or even Tampa.

So my question became “are pelicans migratory?” Which begged another question “where did they come from?”

That started the Monty Python Holy Grail dialogue going through my mind. What is the airspeed velocity of an un-laden pelican? Could he grip that coconut by the husk, or just carry it in his beak pouch? Yea…the dynamics of Monty Python just doesn’t translate to pelicans, even if they do migrate. Still, I had to mount my pretend horse and gallop around the pond with the dogs, even if I didn’t have a coconut to make the sound effects.

In all seriousness, these pelicans do migrate from the middle of the US down the Mississippi River. The weather in the south east being so awful this year drove them further south and west.

So we got to see something unusual because of the Polar Vortex. I hope they find their way back to their favored river. Our retention ponds have little fish, and turtles, but they aren’t a very clean or a fresh atmosphere for such big birds.

Just another day in South Texas.