Massive Flock
updated: Jan 16, 2013, 1:15 PM

By bradleybennett

Several people witnessed a massive flock of pelicans feeding on a school of fish in shallow waters at Ledbetter beach today around 11:00AM. A few dolphins kept watch on the fringes. The pelicans would drop in to catch a fish and after swallowing would take off, make a loop and dive again. I have lived in Santa Barbara for 37 years and have never seen this.

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Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 364102P	2013-01-16 01:37 PM
Dive, dive. NOT the pelicans, the fish.
COMMENT 364107	2013-01-16 01:48 PM
At about 7:30 this morning there was a pod of dolphin’s circling and feeding just off the harbor.
COMMENT 364108	2013-01-16 01:48 PM
Man, I bet there was some big fish out there too eating the leftovers! Wish I would have been there with my fishing rod....
COMMENT 364114P	2013-01-16 01:53 PM
There was a flock doing similarly yesterday off East Beach! Good feeding!!
PATRICK	2013-01-16 02:04 PM
That was great. Surprised I didn't see any mid-air collisions.
COMMENT 364123	2013-01-16 02:05 PM
VERY awesome!
BECKY	2013-01-16 02:14 PM
So cool! I saw this once off Goleta Beach, and it remains a favorite memory. I love pelicans, and can't help but laugh as I watch them dive. To see a huge flock of them just off the beach, eating an obvious school of fish, is just phenomenal. Thanks for sharing!
COMMENT 364128	2013-01-16 02:26 PM
I saw a flock out there yesterday too not that big tho that's amazing
COMMENT 364140	2013-01-16 02:39 PM
Saw them at West Beach/Harbor yesterday early evening, it was cool!
COMMENT 364162	2013-01-16 03:27 PM
The "Bait Ball" of fish moved to the harbor enterance, at the end of the breakwall about 2PM. I have never seen so many pelican, gulls, terns, egrets, sea lions and dolphins feeding all at the same time and same place... Quite a treat to see!
COMMENT 364169	2013-01-16 03:53 PM
Great pictures, it's so amazing to see how our Pelican population has increased. Love those birds!
COMMENT 364170	2013-01-16 03:53 PM
Wow, 37 years? Isn't that the coolest thing about living near nature and the ocean...you see once in a lifetime things, even after all those years here. Very awesome and breathtaking. A great reminder how wonderful it is when the environment is cared for as it is here, and creatures are thriving.
JOJOFLYS	2013-01-16 04:05 PM
From Wikipedia: Pods of many dolphin species commonly herd a school of fish into a bait ball while individual members take turns ploughing through and feeding on the more compacted shoal. Corralling is a method where fish are chased to shallow water where they are more easily captured And this link is to some photos of a bait ball just south of our harbor taken in July this year. It created such a scene that boats were converging on the spot to watch. http://www.flickr.com/photos/smbrcsubmerged/7606597416/in/set-72157629475333752/
COMMENT 364179	2013-01-16 04:06 PM
@ Patrick those pelicans were well choreographed.
D8VANILLA	2013-01-16 05:26 PM
Saw a huge group as i drove hwy 101 south along the beaches around 11:30a
COMMENT 364228	2013-01-16 05:52 PM
Video of the year. Thanks for sharing such an amazing sight.
TWO ABBYS	2013-01-16 08:27 PM
That was awesome, thanks for sharing the video! Once many years ago coming south on 101 near Shell Beach my husband and I saw what looked like a low grey cloud, and beneath it the water looked like it was boiling. When we got closer we could see it was thousands of seabirds. A biologist friend said it was probably sooty shearwaters. Sibley's Field Guide to Birds of Western North America says they can form flocks of hundreds of thousands.
COMMENT 364342	2013-01-16 09:41 PM
I love the video! I happened by and took a bunch of still pictures yesterday off East Beach. It's fascinating to watch the pelicans dive and to know that they can spot a fish from up to about 50' above the water, time their dives, bird and fish moving, so as to catch the fish, which has to be just the right size to swallow. Amazing, too, that they can maneuver so carefully in such crowded conditions. It takes quite a while for the young pelicans, the brown ones, to learn to fish -- there's an estimated 10 attempts for every successful attempt. That's a reason why so many juvenile pelicans hang around the fishing boats and Stearns Wharf early-mid Summer ... and then get hooked. It's really hard to catch a fish and the birds, especially the young, just fresh out of their nests and not having learned to not trust humans, quickly get acclimated to handouts ... and then too often get hooked or trapped in fishing line. The lucky ones get found and brought to the SB Wildlife Care Network. Would that there were many, many such fish balls! It's interesting, too, to think of the communication within the flocks: one or two will spot the fish and soon more and more arrive to share in the feeding, each diving, not fighting among themselves.
COMMENT 364343P	2013-01-16 09:46 PM
We saw a massive pelican feeding scene this morning along hwy 101 south of Carpintrria. Hundreds of baby pelicans were floating on the surface while the adults were diving for fish. I've seen this hapen before offshore from west Isla Vista.
MADMAX	2013-01-17 07:30 AM
O-Fish-L Happy Hour!
CAT2FAT2	2013-01-17 09:28 AM
I was walking along that beach around noon and hoped someone had gotten pictures. Some tiny "bait ball" sardine looking fish were washing up with the waves. It was an amazing sight!
COMMENT 364472	2013-01-17 09:51 AM
There was another off Wilcox yesterday afternoon. Fewer pelicans and more dolphins.
MOARTS51	2013-01-17 11:23 AM
great stuff here and so glad you did video of it - a still just can't do justice to this kind of scene. ab-fab !
COMMENT 364577	2013-01-17 01:37 PM
They were here on Padaro beach too. Not as massive a flock as in the video, but quite a lot of them. Thanks so much for the video, that was amazing!
GOOSEBERRY	2013-01-17 03:35 PM
Great video! Thanks for sharing.

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