There are eight known species of pelicans.
The American White Pelican is the one we’re accustomed to seeing around here.
The juvenile Brown Pelican in my feature photo was enjoying a swim at the Curaçao Sea Aquarium on the day we did our deep dive with Substation Curaçao.
We watched this adult Brown Pelican from the pier at Port Isabel, TX. (note how the plumage changes colour in adulthood), This one was demonstrating why I’m fascinated with these awkward-looking birds. In my world, any creature that can twist their head to look backwards deserves props.
Today, as I was researching pelicans for this post, I learned that the Pelican is regarded as a symbol of charity and sometimes as a symbol of Christ in the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Education website states: “The legend was that in time of famine, the mother pelican wounded herself, striking her breast with the beak to feed her young with her blood to prevent starvation. Another version of the legend was that the mother fed her dying young with her blood to revive them from death, but in turn lost her own life.”
“He wondered why the pelican was the symbol of charity, except it was that it wanted a good deal of charity to admire a pelican”
G.K. Chesterton
Radically Retired 
Beautiful photos – especially the one of the juvenile Brown Pelican. Despite growing up Catholic, I did not know the pelican was the symbol of charity. We are on the same wavelength again. I receive the Missouri Conservationist Magazine – a free magazine for Missouri residents. I read the nature articles (i.e. not the hunting and fishing.) This month there was an outstanding article about the American White Pelicans. I read it a couple days ago. Apparently, thousands of these pelicans migrate through Missouri. The author went to a conservation area before dawn to photograph the pelicans. The article is very interesting, and the pictures are stunning. Here’s the link, just in case you are interested: https://mdc.mo.gov/magazines/missouri-conservationist/2021-10/missouris-visiting-pelicans Hope you have a great Monday!
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It’s uncanny how often we’re thinking about the same things around the same time, Betty! Thanks for the kind compliment on my photos and for the link to the article. I very much enjoyed it. We spent time on a South Padre Island TX beach, watching the pelicans feed in the Gulf of Mexico. The article describes perfectly what we witnessed. Sadly, I was too engrossed to get any photos or video of the event. Because it’s so close to our RV Park, we’ll definitely be returning to Port Isabelle and SPI a few times this winter. If the opportunity arises again, I’ll be ready to hopefully get a few photos of the feeding. Happy Monday to you too!
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I thought of you when reading the article. The author got up before the sun (twice!) to take the photos. It’s good to be so engrossed that one forgets to take photos! But I do look forward to reading about your winter travels.
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