Brown Pelicans By Kay Lay At the end of the day, when I first begin walking along the shoreline, I feel tense,  my stride is short, brisk and scissor-like.  But as my body begins to relax, my stride elongates and my mind begins to open up to the natural world around me. My senses are keen.  No longer in the confines of business or life's daily routine, I find myself letting go of things that, often times, don't even belong to me in the first place.  Isn't it funny how we have a tendancy to take on the problems of the whole world some days? I can honestly say that I have never walked the beaches of South Padre Island without encountering numerous brown pelicans.  Like many others, over the years I have adopted the brown pelican as my favorite bird on South Padre Island.  I have begun to look upon this odd-looking critter as my totem. First of all, let's check out the Wikapedia definition of “totem” from the internet: “any natural or supernatural object, being or animal, which has personal symbolic meaning to an individual and to whose phenomena and energy one feels closely associated with during one's life.” Every time I see a brown pelican, I immediately feel something exciting is about to happen.  It's like when I suddenly see a rainbow gracefully arched across a previously non-descript sky.  It has intrinsic value. It is valuable “in itself” or “for its own sake”. These quys are so big their 7 ft. wing span momentarily blocks the sun as they float silently overhead.  Even when on the ground these birds are 4 ft. tall and can weigh close to 10 pounds. Often times, brown pelicans will form groups of both males and females that fly, roost and feed together.  Although they are known to feed from the surface, these webb-footed diving champions are real aerial acrobats too.  Occasionaly, they will pierce the water's surface in unison as if coreographed in some secret place in their brains. The profile of a pelican is unmistakable.  The long narrow top beak crowns a low hanging pouch.  The pouch is a great net for catching fish  but also serves as a temperature regulator.  Catching fish in their pouch, they drain the water out of the sides of the pouch and swallow the fish. Small clutches of 2 to 3 white eggs are laid in March or April and are attended by both male and female,  holding the eggs under the webs of their feet to incubate.  Chicks hatch in about a month and are fed for about 2 ½ months.  Sexual maturity is reached in 2 to 5 years. Pesticide poisoning, especially by DDT, almost wiped out the brown pelican in the 1950s,  but since the ban on DDT, they have made a remarkable comeback with breeding populations today exceeding historical levels in many areas. Gathering on fishing piers or around boats, waiting for incidental  scraps, pelicans offer great photo opportunities for professional and amatuer photographers so always have your camera ready when encounters with pelicans are likely. A pelican's sillouette at sunrise or sunset is still one of South Padre Island's most  memorable gifts.