Pelicans Are Back In Will County: Preserve

WILL COUNTY, IL — Spring is in the air, and pelicans have been spotted flying overhead and making pit stops at various waterways around Will County over the past few weeks, the Forest Preserve District of Will County said in a release.

The pelicans that pass through Will County each spring and fall are American white pelicans, one of the largest birds in North America, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. These large white birds are clunky and awkward on land, but they are good swimmers and graceful flyers.

The preserve said that the pelicans usually arrive in Will County in late February or early March as they make the return trip to their breeding grounds in Canada and the Dakotas. The pelicans will stick around until early May, and will return again beginning in late August or early September, making a pit stop here on their way to their wintering grounds along the Gulf of Mexico.

In the fall, the pelicans will typically stick around until November or even into December, the preserve said.

The number of pelicans seen locally can vary throughout their stopover periods, and, as with all wildlife, there are no guarantees they'll be present at any given time.

One of the places where they frequently congregate and can be seen with regularity is McKinley Woods — Kerry Sheridan Grove in Channahon. A few other places in the preserves where you might glimpse these big birds include Rock Run Rookery Preserve in Joliet and Lake Renwick Preserve in Plainfield. At Lake Renwick, you can sometimes spot them from Copley Nature Park, where they'll tuck themselves behind the islands to protect themselves from the wind, said Jess McQuown, program coordinator at Four Rivers Environmental Education Center.

Away from the preserves, another pelican hot spot is along Front Street by the boat launch in Channahon.

Many people aren't aware pelicans make regular appearances in Will County, because the American white pelicans are the lesser-known cousins of brown pelicans, which live along the ocean and gulf coast in the southern United States, the preserve said.

Unlike brown pelicans, which dive into the water for food, American white pelicans eat from the water's surface. They dip their bills into the water to catch fish and other aquatic animals, sometimes upending themselves into the water like dabbling ducks do, Cornell Lab reports.