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A peculiar perch Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Three pelicans bask in the morning sun Friday at an irrigation pond in Sams Valley. They and four others have decided it's a good place to call home, at least for awhile. Pelicans make stopover in Sams Valley irrigation pond By MARK FREEMAN SAMS VALLEY - Seven long-faced visitors have taken to this awfully dry corner of the Rogue Valley for a most unusual summer tourist destination. A family of seven white pelicans landed in a 10-acre irrigation pond off Duggan Road two weeks ago and have camped there ever since, apparently enjoying the tranquillity of life off their regular wing-beaten path. Leave it to a flock of feather-brains to come to Sams Valley strictly for the water. "This lake is so ugly," says Lynne O'Leary, one of 10 landowners who irrigate out of the pond. "And Sams Valley is so dry, it's like a desert. "So, for us to have pelicans here," O'Leary says, "is fascinating." What is more fascinating is that these large, fish-eating birds have stuck around, says biologist Simon Wray, of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. White pelicans are regular summer residents at open-water lakes throughout Jackson County as well as Klamath Lake, where they reside by the thousands. And these long-billed, long-winged creatures are known to fly great distances between lakes and will overnight in some odd locations. "Sams Valley," Wray says, "is a hell of a place to pick. But what's really unusual is that they're hanging out." The birds spend most of the day resting or feeding on the pond's bass and panfish, says O'Leary, who mothers the pond's 60 resident Canada geese and has tried to take the pelicans under her wing as well. "They're beautiful and healthy-looking," says O'Leary, an amateur ornithologist. "Wherever they lived before, they weren't deprived." White pelicans sport a grand yellow bill and black-and-white wings that can span 91/2 feet. They swim along and use their long bills to scoop up fish, yet don't dive for fish like their cousins, the smaller brown pelicans. Strong fliers, these pelicans can easily pick up and return to any of the large watering holes within the 541 area code. O'Leary suspects the lingering summer drought sent these birds in search of new waters, and they found her backyard pond a worthy respite. "I think they'll be here for the long haul," she says, "at least until it rains." And every day these pelicans choose to summer in Sams Valley adds to the oddity, Wray says. "It doesn't make a lot of sense, in the final analysis," Wray says. "Staying in Sams Valley is certainly not something they're known to do. "I wish these darn animals would read the same books we do," he says. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.