PELICANS!

Corolla Chapel, near Currituck Lighthouse on the North CarolinaOuter Banks,  has a pelican stained glass window.  Pastor John Strauss explained that the pelican has been a Christian symbol since probably the first century because of an ancient legend..  He first learned of it, he said, during a visit to the "Upper Room" chapel in Jerusalem.  To learn more, click the image below. A search of the Internet turns up several pelican windows in churches in the United Kingdom...and one not far away, at Our Lady of Hope in Potomac Falls,VA

It also appears on the state flag of Louisiana:


[PELICAN AT SEA WORLD]


A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.

Dixon Lanier Merritt

[Merritt's delightful little verse is frequently incorrectly attributed to OGDEN NASH, who wrote about a lot of other critturs.]



I have been fascinated by pelicans since I was a child in Louisiana, where the pelican is, of course, the STATE BIRD.

Some years ago the pelican graced the license plates, forming the separation between the first three digits and the last three. It was a most distinctive license plate and has recently been resurrected as a specialty place:




I renewed my love affair with the big-beaked bird when, as an adult, I encountered the brown variety in Florida and the Carolinas. Watching them flying in formation over the beach, diving headfirst with uncanny accuracy for fish, or simply sitting at rest on the water continues to fascinate me. Some years ago a large number of brown pelicans, possibly driven inland by a hurricane, settled in around the Murry Lock and Dam on the Arkansas River near Little Rock. I have video tape, but, alas, if I took any stills, I have not been able to find them.

While they usually seem to travel in squadrons, swooping across beach and dune like nature's version of the Blue Angels, this lone scout happened to cross my lens in Florida several years ago.  Below, a pelican floating peacefully in the harbor at Ocracoke Island in May of 2005.


And one has just come to roost in my front yard!

More Pelican Souvenirs


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Unless otherwise noted, all art and photographs are by Kay Koehler.
This page was revised April 10, 2009