Two years ago large flocks of American white pelicans starting stopping over on my stretch of the Iowa River while migrating north.
It's quite the kinetic display watching them lunge for fish. This picture isn't cropped. Being this close makes it a challenge to keep them in frame and you have to be a bit lucky. Hope to get more practice this coming spring🤞.
(03/31/22)
#birds #birding #BirdPhotography #BirdsOfMastodon #wildlife #WildlifePhotography #nature #MastoArt #photography #AltText
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTPvf5dat7c
We have them for several months every year above Lock & Dam #10 on the #MississippiRiver at #Guttenberg #Iowa. 🙂 Here is a large flock driving fish and feeding during a rainstorm.
Hello Guttenberg from Coralville/Iowa City👋
Oh! What a marvelous video. Love to see what looked like cormorants diving here and there. Thank you for sharing it👍
No one I've talked to remembers them showing up on our section of the Iowa River in such large flocks prior to two years ago. My image was taken at the foot of the Iowa River Power Dam so they just herd against the outlet and pull out gizzard shad. I gotta see if I can't catch a video myself at some point.
Hello Coralville! My uncle used to have a house off Hwy 1 (Solon) that went to "the Coralville Dam".
I've spent summers above Lock & Dam #10 since 1969 when my folks bought the place. I don't remember Pelicans at all until maybe 15-20 years ago. Of course the river is MUCH cleaner today than back then (better overall habitat, no DDT). 🙂
One of my sisters went to school in La Crosse so we'd venture up to your neck of the woods on occasion. The Mississippi and river valley are so beautiful up there.
I was just up at the Coralville Dam the other day to see what the eagle situation was like. Don't know if you're familiar with Coralville but I'm not far from a small power dam which is one of several on the Iowa River as it passes through Coralville and Iowa City. I actually have a video but its ring-billed gulls👇.
Isn't there a restaurant in #IowaCity called something like "The Power Company" build in an old hydro-plant?
Lots of #Eagles in/around #Guttenberg. Here's video from a few years back...
The restaurant is right behind me in that gull video. Very popular spot for the eagles and pelicans to fish next to the dam. The restaurant closed for good this year. Not sure what they plan to do with the building if anything.
I don't think I've seen that many eagles on the ground before. Must've found some carrion? Great video👍
Oh, yeah, I remember the Highlander though I haven't been there in decades. I checked their website and they remodeled in 2019 after a few decades of decline. One of the places you'd go for prime rib like the Iowa River Power Plant restaurant. But I usually went to The Lark in Tiffin for prime rib until they closed down.
🦅RichKeller Photography🏳️🌈
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