The mess hall here at Lakeside Lab looks out over Little Miller's Bay on West Okoboji and we have been watching the pelicans out on the spit over the last few weeks. I came across this entry in John W. Parson's History of the Iowa Great Lakes Region, based on annual bulletins of the Okoboji Protective Association, 1906-1930 and 1940.
...early last June, a large flock of pelicans stopped for several hours on the sand spit opposite the Lakeside Laboratory. It was watched by a number of interested persons. The birds divided into two equal sized flocks, and took up a position opposite each other a short distance apart, and then from time to time one would leave the one flock flying to rejoin the other flock, till they were all together again. After that there would be another division, and the game was played all over again. To the onlookers it seems as though what they were doing was in the nature of a game. When they were flying and spread their wings showing the black wing feathers it was a beautiful sight. (1920)
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