Date: 3/5/2020
Location: Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District
Site Description: It was 52 degrees Fahrenheit, Chilly, windy, partly cloudy. There were several lakes and a combination of marsh grasslands surrounding the lakes. The lakes had a variety of vegetation with a combination of trees and grass.
Species Account
These birds were in a group, made of 6. They were one of the largest birds with white plumage. They have yellow legs and beck. They have black wing tips which we could not see since they were floating around. They have a long neck, huge wingspan, thick bodies, and short, square tails. You can easily see them once they are in the air. They were often going into the water may be looking for fish. They have infrequent, slow and methodical fapping. They travel in between feeding sites during their migration. We saw them eating and swimming around. We never got a view of them flying. There is a difference in a Breeding adult and nonbreeding adult and that is a yellow plate form on their the upper bill on breeding adults and nonbreeding adults do not have it. They tend to spend their winters on the coast, bay, or a little bit inland. The other species in their family is the brown pelican.
Common Name: American White Pelican
Species: Pelecanus
Family: Pelecanidae
Order Pelecaniformes
Observations: 693,244
Area: North America
Narrative:
The site was cold compared to last week. We first saw a downy woodpecker which we saw on the 2 field trip. Our Mallard friends were in the river and easily spotted. This trip had the most action and it was the hardest to keep documenting birds because we saw so many. The shorebirds are difficult to differentiate still but we continue to see their behavior of putting their bills into the dirt in search of food. We saw a lot of Canada goose and those are really popular at my hometown golf course. They can be aggressive if you approach them. The American coot was a new bird since it has such a unique look with its white bill and black plumage. It was moving its head back and forth when it was swimming. The Green-Winged Teal also tend to be small. Seeing the White-tailed Kite was a great bird to see and I loved how it glided through the sky. It hovering over open areas in the grasslands probably looking for food that consists of mice or snakes. We also saw Common Merganser where the males have blackhead, red beck, and white bodies where the females have a reddish head, and white, gray body and red beck. We mainly saw them swimming around. We also saw a mute swan looking for food in the water. 
https://ebird.org/checklist/S66875505
Bird List:
Downy woodpecker 1
Mallard 40
Northern Harrier 5
Wilson’s Snipe 1
Long-billed curlew 1
Canada goose 20
Black-crowned Night-Heron 5
Snowy Egret 5
American Coot 8
American white pelican 6
Double-crested cormorant 13
Ring-billed gulls 2
Common gallinule 1
Tree swallow 1
Dowitcher 9
Great Blue Heron 1
Pied-billed grebe 2
Green-winged Teal 10
White-tailed kite 1
Black phoebe 1
House Finch 3
Marsh wren 1
Cinnamon teal 5
Mute swan 3
Forster’s tern 1
Red-tailed hawk 1
Turkey Vulture 1
White-crowned sparrow 10
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Golden-crowned Sparrow 2
Common Merganser 6
Common Raven 1
American Crow 1
Northern shoveler 3
Bufflehead 2
Killdeer 2
Mourning dove 6
