American White Pelicans flock to Iowa City
An Iowa City bird watcher witnessed four separate pelicans collide with a telephone pole over the Benton Street Bridge on Wednesday. He claimed to have seen about 250 other pelicans in the Iowa River.
A pelican flies over the Iowa River on Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
March 23, 2022
If you’ve seen pelicans swimming or flying around the Iowa River lately, don’t be alarmed — it’s natural, although some Iowa City residents say they’ve never seen this many here before.
Iowa City resident Robby Heath claims to have seen over 250 pelicans on Wednesday.
“I personally have never seen more than one pelican in Iowa at any given moment,” he said. “To see 250 seems really unusual.”
Anna Buckardt-Thomas, a member of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Diversity Staff, said the American White Pelican, the type Heath saw, are most commonly found in Iowa’s reservoirs like those in Saylorville and Coralville, where pelicans live all summer.
“As long as there is some open water, we sometimes see pelicans throughout the winter,” Buckardt-Thomas said. “But they are migratorial, so those birds could be just moving through, or they could be some of the local birds that hang out all summer.”
While she said it is not uncommon to see pelicans in the Iowa City area during this season, their presence has increased since the 1980s.
Pelicans, she explained, are protected under the Migratory Treaty Act of 1918 from being killed, captured, sold, traded, or transported without permission by the Department of Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“It’s definitely nothing out of the ordinary at this point,” she said.
The state of Iowa has one American White Pelican breeding colony along the Mississippi River in Clinton County. They are a species of Greatest Conservation Need in Iowa, Buckardt-Thomas said, and are listed in the Iowa Wildlife Action Plan.
Of course, the birds aren’t protected from all dangers. Heath claimed to have seen four pelicans collide with telephone poles at separate times on Wednesday over the Benton Street Bridge.
During the first, Health said he had been driving across the Benton Street bridge when a pelican crashed over the bridge, causing him to stop.
“I got out and scooped up the pelican and brought him to the grass,” Heath said. “I believe he died in my arms as I was bringing him to the grass.”
Heath said he and another witness called Iowa City Animal Shelter, employees of which arrived at the sight and confirmed the first pelican was dead.
Heath said he thinks a good preventative measure would be to put something more visible on the poles for overcast days.
He added that of the people he’s spoken to about the pelicans, no one has seen this many in Iowa City before.
“It was such a thrilling experience,” he said. “Good way to start the spring. Other than the pelicans that died, it was great to see the other ones trying to enjoy fishing.”
Heath said that one of the local residents he spoke with claimed to have seen the pelicans fighting with seagulls over fish on Tuesday.
“What I understand is they usually migrate up the Mississippi River from Texas up to Canada and sometimes through Indiana but for some reason they decided to go up the Iowa River,” Heath said. “But in my opinion, they’re not really familiar with this terrain on the Iowa River.”
