Great Salt Plains refuge hosts water birds during migration

By John David Sutter

Published: September 18, 2008

GREAT SALT PLAINS LAKE — For Becky Wolff and other binocular-toting bird watchers, the American white pelicans are like crotchety old men you can't help but love.

The drama of the squawking, irritable birds' dangerous migration from the northern Great Plains to Mexico is unfolding this week in northwest Oklahoma at the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, where Wolff is the outdoor recreation planner.

"I think it takes a lot of courage to do the migration,” she said. "They travel at night sometimes, and they only use the stars.”

The birds, which weigh about 20 pounds each, began arriving late last week and will continue coming in over the next week or two.

Average stay at the refuge is about two weeks before they resume their trek south.

For bird watchers — or "birders” — everywhere, the American white pelican is a conservation success story. After being hunted to near extinction, their populations have been on the rise since the 1960s, leading groups such as the Audubon Society to list them in good standing.

The Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, north of Jet, makes a good stop-off point on the migratory routes of many birds that travel down the Great Plains each fall to winter in warmer climates. They return north in the spring.

About 300 species of birds come through the area each year, and Wolff, a perky 26-year-old, finds most of them to be hilarious.

The American White pelican is among her favorites, and she's come up with analogies to describe the bird and its long voyage.

The Great Salt Plains Lake is "kind of like McDonald's for them,” she says, noting that it is a stop on their long road trip south. The pelicans' drooping bill pouches — which they expand for carrying fish to their young — acts "like a eyelid,” she says: it's visible sometimes, but usually hidden.

As many as 70,000 of the birds have been spotted on the lake at once, leading Wolff to say: "It really looks like there's snowcaps on the lake.”

Her favorite comparison is between the pelicans and grumpy old men. She laughs as the pelicans glide by with seemingly uninterested snarls on their faces.

Others sit on the shore of the lake making hacking sounds that somehow also seem whiney.

They fly in an awkward pack, not in graceful "V” formations characteristic of some other migratory birds. "They don't always know who's the leader,” she said.

Still, Wolff says the birds are smarter than they might seem. The Great Salt Plains Lake makes a brilliant feeding ground because it's shallow enough for the birds to surround groups of small fish in a circle — and then pounce on them all at once. Such coordination is especially impressive since the birds can only make three sounds, Wolff said: a breeding call, an "immature voice” and a warning call.

Jane Cunningham, president of the Audubon Society chapter in central Oklahoma, said the attack is coordinated and graceful, "like a ballet.”

Her group plans a trip to northwest Oklahoma this fall, she said, adding that some of the pelicans usually stop at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City a little later in the fall.

Pelican numbers at the refuge are somewhat down this year because flooding has made the area less desirable to the birds, Wolff said. Still, several thousand can be seen at sunrise and sunset, and Wolff offers free guided tours — with binoculars and jokes in hand.

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