June 21st, 2020: Pelican Crossing

[Carruthers]

Earlier this week the Pelicans that live in St James' Park, London, decided to take a walk across The Mall, stopping traffic.
Park Wardens had to move them back.

At a scenic duck pond in Central London near Buckingham Palace are some unusual residents — the famous pelicans of St. James Park, living thousands of miles from their usual habitat.
The colony of disturbingly large, but friendly, birds include five Eastern Whites and one South American White.
Pelicans were first introduced to the park in 1664, a generous gift from a Russian Ambassador. In 2013, three of the five Eastern Whites arrived as a gift from the city of Prague, joining the descendants of the original Russian flock.
The pelicans can regularly be seen basking on rocks between 2:30 and 3:00 daily, when they are fed fish by the park rangers, when they aren’t sneaking into the London Zoo to pilfer the fish of their less free-range friends.
The pelicans are extremely social, and quite used to human companionship — it’s not unusual for them to leave their lake to sit on the benches alongside bemused office workers and tourists.

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[DanaC]

Hahahaha Nice

[monster]

Thanks, Caruthers

[Carruthers]

It occurred to me that they might have had some purpose in mind, but looking at the map the only thing apparently in their sights is the Institute of Contemporary Arts.




And that's closed for the duration of the current brouhaha.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Carruthers

It occurred to me that they might have had some purpose in mind, but looking at the map the only thing apparently in their sights is the Institute of Contemporary Arts.




And that's closed for the duration of the current brouhaha.

Perhaps they're on their way there as the new traveling exhibit.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Maybe they're just assholes who like to tie up traffic.

[sexobon]

They're reenactors. That's their version of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road.

They're just pelicans, it's the best they can do.

[blueboy56]

Yeh, just you wait until they start eating pigeons like they do in the parks in California (Which You Tube videos you can look at)

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by blueboy56

Yeh, just you wait until they start eating pigeons like they do in the parks in California (Which You Tube videos you can look at)

It seems that it's not uncommon for it to happen in the St James' Park colony.
A couple of paragraphs dating back to 2006...

A pelican who found himself in the news after scooping up and eating a pigeon in a London park may not have been behaving as unusually as it first seemed.

The pelican's snacking antics made headlines when he was caught on camera by a professional photographer snapping wildlife pictures in St James's Park.

The RSPB said it was "almost unheard of" for a pelican to eat a bird, with their diet usually being strictly fish.

But it has emerged that pelicans scoffing birds may not be as rare an occurrence as first believed.

The coverage on the BBC News website - which was among last week's most-read stories on the site - prompted a number of emails from readers saying they had seen pelicans eat birds in the park before.

Alex Worrall said he saw a pelican in the park eat a duck about 20 years ago, while John Stather said he saw two of the birds eat pigeons at the same time six years ago.

Mr Stather said: "First of all one pelican grabbed a pigeon, and then one of the others did exactly the same.

Nature is red in tooth and claw.

BBC article

[Griff]

and beak and gular pouch

[monster]

It occurred to me that some non-Brits may not know that one type of pedestrian crossing in the UK is called a Pelican Crossing

...and TIL is used to be spelled Pelicon, as it stands for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by monster

It occurred to me that some non-Brits may not know that one type of pedestrian crossing in the UK is called a Pelican Crossing

...and TIL is used to be spelled Pelicon, as it stands for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled.

Thanks for that, monster. That's a TIL for me as well!

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Carruthers

Thanks for that, monster. That's a TIL for me as well!

likewise, thank you.

[monster]

I remember wondering what type of bird (or animal) a belisha was because we had pelican crossings and zebra crossings and some crossings had belisha beacons (which I imagined as "Beak-on")

[xoxoxoBruce]

Since the introduction of new regulations in 1997, the number of zebra crossings and Belisha beacons has fallen in the northern counties of England, being replaced by pelican crossings or puffin crossings, with pedestrian-controlled traffic signals; a waiting pedestrian can stop vehicular traffic by pressing a button and waiting for the pedestrian signal of a red and green man to change to green.

Great sport for bored kids, hang around the light and when a car comes push the button and make them stop. Then don't cross just stand there and watch them boil. Big prestige if you can made steam come out of their ears.

The green man can be accompanied by a green bicycle to indicate that the crossing is designated for pedestrians and cyclists; continuing the bird-name theme, this type of crossing is called a toucan crossing, as in, 'two can' cross. Another variation is the pegasus crossing where the pedestrian is accompanied by a green horse to indicate that the crossing is designated for pedestrians and horses, for example, at Hyde Park Corner, London.

What? If you're riding a bike or a horse you can't use just any pedestrian crossing, you have to go find one with a horse or bike on the light? That's silly.