Great White Pelican, Here We Go Again!

Great White Pelican, Sanibel, FL 2016, ©Lillian Stokes

Great White Pelican, Sanibel, FL 2016 ©Lillian Stokes

Great White Pelican, Merritt Island, FL 2020 ©Kristina Fisher

Here we go again! A Great White Pelican (a species found in Africa, Asia and Europe) showed up Thursday at Merritt Island, FL. Experts are trying to determine if this is the same Great White Pelican that showed up at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel FL in Feb. 2016, 2017 and 2019. The Sanibel sightings were rejected by the Florida Ornithological Society as a first North American record even though there was no evidence that this was a bird escaped from captivity in the U.S. Experts keep track of that plus this bird had no bands. Will this open the case again? Amazingly this new sighting, as with previous sightings, had the Great White Pelican showing up the same month, February, in the company of American White Pelicans. The photo on top I took at Ding Darling in Feb. 2016, the photo on bottom was taken by Kristina Fisher Thursday at Merritt Island. Stay tuned. To see my blog post on the Sanibel bird go,

https://stokesbirdingblog.blogspot.com/search…