Be on the lookout for pelicans on the Rock River and surrounding areas this spring!

Email from Tom Eighmy, a new friend of mine who lives on he Rock River between Rockford and Byron:
"We saw the Pelicans ... every day for a week or so [in the past several years]. It was amazing, they would come by at about the same time every day and if you weren't watching you would miss them since they were silent (not like the geese!)"

The pelicans stop there in the spring on their northern journey. And some have been spotted flying over Janesville, too.

Thanks to Tom Eighmy's photography, you will see those Rock River pelicans in my video along with more pelicans on the river in Horicon Marsh, and Ixonia and on Beaver Dam Lake. In addition to Horicon, the pelicans have also started colonies on or near Lake Winnebago and Green Bay.

The journey up the Rock River after exiting the Mississippi flyway can treacherous for these birds. In the past few years, Hoo Haven animal shelter just over the state line in Illinois has taken in at least three pelicans apparently burned or mangled colliding with utility wires. Director Karen Herdklotz says they have been seeing more pelicans on the Rock River since Hurricane Katrina. Herdklotz gives talks to Scout groups and schools in Janesville and other Rock County communities. When I spoke to her a few weeks ago, she was still caring for one of the injured pelicans.