Pelicans of Lake Kerkini

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Four days in January, with Wildlife Worldwide, led by Sean Weekly.

 

Sean has been running trips to Lake Kerkini for many years, this year hosting four, back to back during January. For one guest it was her fifth trip. Typically it is very cold, with clear skies, but this year, for our few days, it was very different. Rain, mist, fog, gales, storm clouds, rainbow and just the occasional glimpse of the sun. However, it was a bit warmer than usual so I didn’t need all the thermal layers that I had brought.

 

 

Lake Kerkini is an artificial reservoir in Central Macedonia, Greece that was created in 1932, and then redeveloped in the 1980’s, on the site of what was previously an extremely extensive marshland.

 

Lake Kerkini is now one of the premier birdwatching sites in Greece. Its size varies from 54 km2 to 72 km2. (c.f. Disney World @ 100km2) The lake is a technical work of great agricultural utility and provides a hydro-biosphere for thousands of water fowls.

 

Human intervention usually retracts or takes negative action against the natural processes. Lake Kerkini is a rare example, where the gentle human handling has had the exact opposite result.

 

 

The Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus), also known as the curly-headed pelican (crispus meaning “curly” in Latin), is the largest member of the pelican family and among the heaviest flying birds in the world. With a wingspan typically ranging between 2.7 and 3.2 metres it ranks among the largest soaring birds. These pelicans are known for their graceful flight and often travel in synchronised flocks.

 

The Dalmation Pelican was first described in 1832 based an a specimen shot in Dalmatia (Croatia), and one of the first formal illustrations of the bird was produced by Edward Lear. Although the species was considered extinct in Croatia since the 1950s, a lone Dalmatian pelican was observed there in 2011.

 

 

Throughout the 20th century, the Dalmatian pelican underwent a dramatic decline in numbers, becoming one of the most threatened pelican species. Habitat loss due to wetland drainage and land conversion is considered one of the primary drivers of this decline. The global population of the Dalmatian pelican is now estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000 individuals, with roughly 3,000 to 5,000 breeding pairs, mostly found in Russia. There is a breeding colony of about 1600 pairs at Small Prespa Lake, in Greece on the border with Albania. The Kerkini population is somewhat smaller, and both Prespa and Kerkini suffered significant losses from avian flu.

 

The Dalmatian pelican is a piscivorous, non-apex predator, functionally classified as an opportunistic secondary-to-tertiary consumer. It forages across freshwater, brackish, and coastal ecosystems, primarily during crepuscular hours, using shallow-water surface capture techniques.

 

 

In winter, when the water is cooler, the fish swim lower and are harder for the pelicans to catch. They then take advantage of the cormorants, who work together to flush the fish and bring them to the surface. In some places pelicans have been regarded as competition for the fishermen (actually, it’s the deeper diving cormorants that are the real competition), but on Lake Kerkini they have been fed with fish (mainly carp) which wouldn’t sell in the market. As well as helping the pelican survive over the cold winters, it opens up the possibility of photographic tourism, bring much needed income to remoter communities.

 

Sources:

• Lake Kerkini  Wikipedia
• Dalmation Pelicans Wikipedia
• Lifelines, by Julian Hoffman – for more abuot Lake Prespa (and pelicans in Chapter 10). Review b Mark Avery.

 

Special thanks to Sean for help with Lightroom editing, and helping me to make the photos “pop”. Let me know in the comments what you think – and maybe tell me which one might be your favourite photo.

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