Apparently, the white pelicans weren’t going to leave our Tuesday question unanswered for long. Just three days after we published “Where Are the White Pelicans?,” the birds are here at the Ross Barnett Reservoir, spotted Friday, November 6, while the weather still feels more like a pleasant afternoon on the water than the approach of winter.
Their arrival raises a reasonable question. If warm weather was slowing their migration, why show up while central Mississippi is still warm? The answer has more to do with conditions along their journey than the temperature on our back porches.
Changing weather to our north
This week’s national weather pattern provides a possible clue. In its November 5 discussion, the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center described reinforcing cold fronts bringing cooler-than-average temperatures southward across portions of the Plains and Midwest. At the same time, unseasonably mild weather was lingering east of the Mississippi River. Those conditions can exist together: birds farther north may encounter changing weather while their destination remains warm.
Closer to home, the National Weather Service in Jackson reported a reinforcing cold front northwest of the area Friday morning, with strong high pressure over the northern Plains. Its forecast called for north winds around 10 mph, gusting to 20 mph, during the day. Jackson was still forecast to reach 78 degrees Friday before a cooler Saturday high near 68. Those are Jackson forecast temperatures, rather than measurements at the Reservoir, but they illustrate the transition underway.
That combination offers a plausible explanation for the timing. Changing conditions farther north and potentially helpful winds may have supported southward travel before residents here felt much of a cooldown. However, weather reports alone cannot establish where these particular pelicans came from or which conditions prompted them to move.
Warm weather can slow migration without stopping it
Our earlier story emphasized warm northern weather as an explanation for the wait. That needs some qualification: warm weather can influence migration, but it does not put every flock on hold, and a major Arctic outbreak is not a requirement for pelicans to arrive.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service explains that weather affects when migrating waterbirds reach the Upper Mississippi River, how long they remain and how concentrated their numbers become. A warm fall can mean a slower migration, while colder conditions farther north encourage birds to move south. Slower, however, does not mean stopped.
There is evidence that pelicans are still spread along the migration corridor. In a November 5 update from the Upper Mississippi River refuge, observers near Brownsville, Minnesota, reported large groups of pelicans on the water and others flying overhead. Their presence there, even as pelicans appear here, is a reminder that migration unfolds across a broad region rather than bringing every bird south at once. It does not establish that the birds seen in Minnesota are the ones now at the Reservoir.
A place to rest and feed
For a traveling pelican, suitable water and feeding opportunities matter. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, American white pelicans stop during migration at lakes, wetlands and river edges where they can forage and rest. Warm weather at a stopover does not make those places unsuitable; open water is part of what they need.
For Reservoir residents, their return offers another reason to spend a little time looking across the water. Bring binoculars or a camera, watch from a comfortable distance and give resting or feeding birds plenty of space. If you’re boating or paddling, enjoy the view without approaching closely enough to send them into the air.
We may still be wearing short sleeves, but one of the Reservoir’s familiar seasonal visitors has arrived. If you spot white pelicans around the lake, share your photos and the date and location with Reservoir Daily News. We’d love to see where they’re turning up.
