TORRINGTON – One of the tell-tale signs that spring has arrived in Southeast Wyoming is when the pelican migration rolls through Torrington.
The annual event happened on Friday morning and more than 100 pelicans spent time resting and even doing some fishing on the North
Platte River.
The Platte River corridor is a hot bed for the pelicans.
“They love fish, and the North Platte holds fish,” Martin Hicks, a wildlife biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish.
What was seen along the river on Friday is a unique sight, according to Hicks.
Once the group of American White Pelicans arrive to their destination, that’s when the birds will break down into smaller groups.
“When they make these big migration pushes to north, they will get in these bigger flocks, and then they will start breaking up,” Hicks said. “Most of the time they are in groups of 12-20.”
The birds will spend the spring and summer here before going back south for the fall and winter.
“They spend their winters down at the Gulf of Mexico,” Hicks said. “They will bread here. They’ll stay here in the spring and summer and migrate back down to the gulf in the fall and winter.”
Once the breading is complete, it will take a couple of months for their eggs to hatch just before the pelicans return south during the colder months.
The American White Pelican can be seen as far north as Montana and into the southern parts of Canada.
