Hastings 3915

Another kind of pelican

We featured the live pelicans at Hastings in another post but there is another interesting group on pelicans -- this carved group near the Pelican Park Aquatic Centre.

Behind the pelicans can be seen the fence of the wheelchair access swing, a little known (and therefore under-used) facility which is available to locals and visitors.

For details of all services at the Pelican Park Aquatic Centre see
http://www.mornpen.vic.gov.au/Page/page.asp?page_Id=293

Pelicans at Hastings

A funny old bird is a pelican.
His beak can hold more than his bellican.
Food for a week
He can hold in his beak,
But I don't know how the hellican.

— Dixon Lanier Merritt*

The Australian Pelican is seen every day at the Hastings Jetty -- and they don't store food in that huge beak.

Though these are common birds in all parts of Australia where there is water, they still draw many visitors to Hastings as a place where they can almost always be seen close in to the land, thanks to a steady supply of fish from local fishermen and the fish shop on the jetty.

They are social animals and look ungainly until you see them fly. The Australian pelican is among the largest of the seven or eight species around the world.

Pelecanus conspicillatus is a large bird, 1.6 to 1.8 metres long, 2.3 to 2.5 metres wingspan. Colouring is predominently white with black markings and a pink bill that is used to strain water to gain small fish and crustaceans. They eat fish and whatever else is around, including turtles, and have reportedly been known to drown seagulls before swallowing them headfirst when food is short according to the Australian Museum. They will work together to herd fish into shallow water ready to scoop them up.

Contrary to legend the bill is not used for storage, but is sometimes extended in gathering water containing food or even to gather rainwater.

Numbers reportedly decreased in this area in early 2009 but that may be due to so many pelicans gathering in the Lake Eyre region during one of the few periods when that lake was filled with water as a result of high rainfall in northern Australia. That is what happened in the mid-1970s -- only a few remained around the coast. When the lake dried up, they returned.

Pelicans do not fly for extended periods but they can travel large distances by rising on air thermals and then gliding. Reputedly some seen at Lake Eyre were later seen at Christmas Island.

More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Pelican 

*US poet and humorist, 1879-1972, who was at one time editor of Nashville's morning newspaper, the Tennessean. He wrote the limerick in 1910, and in other years as there are several versions.