© Clark Grell | Lincoln Journal Star
American white pelicans — and one out-of-place brown pelican — enjoy the warm waters of the cooling pond at Gerald Gentleman power station near Sutherland.
American white pelicans — and one out-of-place brown pelican — enjoy the warm waters of the cooling pond at Gerald Gentleman power station near Sutherland.
For nonbirders, "twitching" is a British birding term meaning to chase after a previously located (usually rare) bird. Brown pelicans are typically found in coastal areas, but birds occasionally wander inland. The brown pelican I was chasing was found by Stephen J. Dinsmore and Kevin Murphy on Dec. 26. Nebraska's other seven documented sightings, as well as the vast majority of inland records from other states of brown pelicans, are during warmer months. Thus, a brown pelican in Nebraska is notable, but one in winter is crazy.
It seems most likely this particular brown pelican is from the Gulf Coast, perhaps Texas. Any part of the brown pelican's normal range is at a minimum a thousand miles from Sutherland Reservoir. It's impossible to know when this bird left its familiar coastal haunts to fly inland. The explanation for why this bird ended up at Sutherland in winter, and possibly why it is still alive, is easier to understand.
Sutherland Reservoir has a cooling pond, which receives water from the Nebraska Public Power District's nearby coal-fired Gerald Gentleman power station. The constant infusion of warm water into the cooling pond keeps the water open even during the coldest winters. This human-created environment allows several fish-eating bird species, including American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants and great blue herons, to overwinter at this site when they might otherwise migrate south to warmer climes or perish.
Comment: Recent reports of birds completely losing their way across the Northern Hemisphere: White-rumped sandpiper from Arctic North America ends up in Australia
Rare goose from northern Asia turns up in Suffolk, UK
Rare Eurasian kestrel appears in Nova Scotia, Canada
Another completely lost avian species: Couch's Kingbird flies from southern Texas to New York
Warbler that should be wintering in western Mexico turns up in Louisiana
Bean goose from Eurasia takes a wrong turn and winds up on the Oregon Coast
Four lost flamingos fly NORTH for the winter and turn up in Siberia
Wrong place, wrong time: European robin turns up thousands of miles away in China
Rare bird from Mongolia turns up in Wakefield, UK
Wrong time, wrong place: Rare bird found in Barrie, Canada