This rain-drenched pelican has been staked out at a very small lake called Sabetha Pony Creek Lake near the Nebraska-Kansas state line for a week or so. Being about 800 miles from its nearest breeding grounds this bird is safe from BP's oil but not starvation. I saw it take an afternoon constitutional around the lake for about 2 minutes before landing on its favored snag without diving for fish. This individual is about the 13th representative of its species, Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis, to grace the state of Kansas. I believe this is a third-year bird from the Atlantic coast based on breeding coloration of bill and head yet with grayish-white plumage on belly which is remnant plumage of a juvenile; a gray gular pouch fits the Atlantic subspecies.