As the seasons change and the chill of winter looms, the University falls into a new routine. Students pull their North Face fleeces out of the closet, lines at Starbucks stretch to eternity and groups of smokers huddle in the corners of buildings, taking shelter from the wind.
While Louisiana weather and foliage don’t show off the same seasonal changes that can be seen in the northern reaches of the country, there is one sure sign that winter is coming — the arrival in droves of the American White Pelican to the University Lake.
Unlike the Louisiana state bird — the smaller Brown Pelican, which makes its home in the South year-round — the American White Pelican arrives on the Gulf Coast in November to take shelter from the colder temperatures in its breeding grounds farther north.
White Pelicans have been making their way to Baton Rouge for about the last two weeks, according to biology senior James Klarevas. Flocks of approximately 300 birds could be seen at the University Lake on Tuesday.
Klarevas, who hopes to study ornithology, or the study of birds, in graduate school, said it seems the pelicans have moved south earlier than usual this year.
“We’re seeing, across the board, a lot of earlier and later records for migration,” Klarevas said. “Obviously, people aren’t sure exactly what is causing it, but people tend to think it’s climate change-related.”
Klarevas said he heard from friends that a small group of White Pelicans stayed in Baton Rouge for almost the full year, only migrating north in the middle of the summer.
Renewable natural resources adjunct professor Alan Afton said some of the pelicans that have been observed at the lake had been banded or tagged, meaning they had been catalogued by researchers at their summer home up north.
American White Pelicans move to the northern Great Plains region in late winter or early spring to breed, Afton said. In the winter, low temperatures, snow and frozen bodies of water can put the birds’ food supply at risk, so they move south to the Gulf Coast, where air and water temperatures are warmer.
Afton said the migration, which can stretch more than 1,500 miles, is not a problem for the pelicans because they are efficient flyers. He said students can see the birds riding columns of hot air, or “thermals,” without flapping above the University Lake, to see their ability to save energy while flying.
“In spring and fall, they migrate in large flocks to help them save energy,” Afton said. “People have actually observed them coordinate their hunting behaviors to benefit the other members of the flock.”

Gallery • 9 Photos

Richard Redmann

An American White Pelican flies over University Lake on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013.