THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9512300184
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
The white pelican that has been spending its winters on Lake Windsor adjacent to Mount Trashmore is back again this year.
The big white bird spends a lot of time on the south side of the lake, perched on a little point of land that juts out from part of the Windsor Woods neighborhood, said bird watcher Carl Kraft who keeps tabs on natural events around the city.
You can't miss a white pelican. Bigger than any wild bird around here, its brilliant white feathers and orange-yellow beak glisten in the sunlight. Black wing tips are visible when it flies.
Although many brown pelicans regularly spend the winter in Virginia Beach, the white pelican is way out of its range here. More of a central and western bird, white pelicans usually winter much farther south.
Kraft, who keeps a daily eye and written record on the comings and goings of birds in the northern part of the city, said the white pelican arrived in mid-December. According to his records of the past three years, the bird did not arrive until the early part of January. Kraft is assuming that the pelican summers well north of Virginia Beach and that cold weather drove him south earlier than usual.
The pelican is alone again this year as it was last year. For two years before that, there was a pair of the big white birds gracing Lake Windsor, he said.
Incidentally, Kraft also spotted a white-cheeked pintail in a neighborhood pond in Thoroughgood. The duck is a Caribbean and South American species, he said. Kraft wonders if the Caribbean's severe hurricane season this fall didn't cause the bird to fly out of its range.
VIRGINIA BEACH'S bird of prey expert Reese Lukei along with some of the many osprey that nest here are featured in the December issue of Calypso Log, the Cousteau Society's magazine. The article, ``Bandits of the Air,'' discusses the osprey's life cycle and its comeback from the almost fatal consequences of the poisonous insecticide DDT.
One photo is of three young osprey born last summer in a nest on a buoy right off the First Landing/Seashore State Park boat landing at the Narrows and another is of an adult coming in for a landing at the nest off the park's Cape Henry Trail. Lukei is shown on a ladder as he prepares to band a young osprey.
Sometimes we really don't appreciate what we have in our own back yard. That Virginia Beach osprey are being featured in a magazine that goes to nature lovers around the world is a case in point.
The photogenic osprey youngsters could only help with the Beach's effort to promote nature-based tourism here.
THE WHALE WATCHING season last winter, the two bald eagles that plummeted to Atlantic Avenue in a mating ritual and the peregrine falcon roosting on the Virginia House are my nominations for Virginia Beach's most unusual natural events of 1995.
In January, February and March, more than 20,000 folks went whale watching with the Virginia Marine Science Museum and they sighted whales 90 percent of the time. The big humpbacks put on quite a show as they fed in the food-rich waters at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
After two eagles locked their talons in a courtship display high over Virginia Beach and couldn't free themselves, they tumbled out of the sky and into the middle of Atlantic Avenue. Fortunately the eagles were rescued from the traffic by passing motorists and the birds soon flew off, seemingly unharmed.
Folks assumed the big birds were the pair that nested in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge the year before, becoming the first eagles to nest in the city in decades.
The peregrine falcon can be seen from Pacific Avenue as it feasts on pigeons and other birds while perched on ledges of the northwest and southwest wings of the Virginia House. On many days, the bird's dark form is easily seen against the building's light brick usually around the 10th floor. Most often it's facing the wall and usually in a corner. Peregrine falcons, normally cliff dwellers, have taken to Norfolk's tall buildings off and on for several years, but this is the first time one of the endangered birds has decided to spend some time in Virginia Beach.
All this activity by protected species in Virginia Beach is another plus for nature-based tourism.
P.S. CELEBRATE TWELFTH NIGHT from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Francis Land House. Tours will be given every 10 minutes where participants can ``meet'' Francis Land and his household, enjoy 18th century music and dance and have a piece of Twelfth Night cake. Christmas greens will be burned around a bonfire. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for children, 6 to 18. To find out more, call 431-4000.
THE MOON is full Friday. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by
MARY REID BARROW
You can't miss a white pelican, like the one spending the winter at
Mount Trashmore. Bigger than any wild bird around here, its
brilliant white feathers and orange-yellow beak glisten in the
sunlight. Black wing tips are visible when it flies.
by CNB