Pelicans take center stage on Coralville Lake

The wonderful bird with the capacious bill and the name that requires clever rhymes like “belly can” will be formally celebrated for the first time in Eastern Iowa on Sunday.

After 10 years at Saylorville Lake in Polk County and a one-year hiatus last year, the Pelican Festival is coming to Coralville Lake.

“We are excited about bringing this event to east-central Iowa and hope to see lots of people and families,” said Doug Harr, president of Iowa Audubon, which is co-sponsoring the festival along with the Department of Natural Resources, the Army Corps of Engineers, Macbride Raptor Center, Iowa City Bird Club and Cedar Rapids Audubon Society.

“This will be a great opportunity to see pelicans and a lot of other birds,” said Karen Disbrow, president of the Iowa City Bird Club.

Disbrow estimated that about 1,000 pelicans were on Coralville Lake at midweek.

The American white pelican, an increasingly frequent Iowa summer resident and a recently established breeder in the state, will be the center of attention from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the DNR's Hawkeye Wildlife Area headquarters a mile west of state highway 965 on Old Amana Road.

The festival will highlight the birds' annual fall migration, which includes major stopovers on Coralville, Red Rock, Saylorville and other reservoirs in the state.

Pelicans have successfully reproduced in Iowa on two islands in pool 13 of the Mississippi River since 2007, according to Ed Britton, manager of the Mississippi River National Fish and Wildlife Refuge's Savanna District.

Those pelicans have since increased geometrically, producing 200 young in 2008, 400 young in 2009 and 800 young in 2010, Britton said.

The pelicans nest on the sand while other colony breeders - great blue herons, great egrets, double crested cormorants and ring-billed gulls - nest in the island's trees, he said.

Bruce Ehresman, a DNR wildlife diversity biologist, said volunteers participating in the ongoing Iowa Breeding Bird Atlas survey have spotted summering, immature white pelicans in most Iowa counties.

Because the Mississippi River nesting colony is not one of the atlas' designated survey areas, atlas volunteers have not yet confirmed that pelicans breed in Iowa, he said.

While local bird experts with spotting scopes help the public view pelicans, Sunday's festival will include a full slate of bird-related presentations and exhibits.