Hungry birds: Food a concern for brown pelicans

The birds migrate north from California and Mexico

By Katie Frankowicz

The Daily Astorian

Published on May 22, 2018 12:01AM

Last changed on May 22, 2018 8:39AM

The Wildlife Center of the North Coast has already cared for several starving young California brown pelicans this spring.

Brown pelicans, which migrate north in the spring from nesting colonies off Southern California and Mexico, spent several decades on the federal endangered species list because of exposure to pesticides like DDT and other contaminants. Their delisting in 2009 was a success story, but concerns remain about the birds’ continued survival.

Chief among these concerns is the availability of food.

Anchovy and sardine stocks — important sources of food for brown pelicans — have collapsed in portions of the birds’ range. At nesting colonies in the south, researchers are concerned that lack of food is affecting the pelicans’ productivity. Some researchers theorize shifting ocean conditions could drive both prey and predators northward. In the meantime, a northern stock of anchovies remains an important source of food in the birds’ nonbreeding range, which includes roosts in Clatsop County.

“That’s a major concern and threat for this species,” said Michelle McDowell, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Brown pelicans have long lives — with a maximum documented life span of 43 years.

“They don’t have to breed every year, but making sure they have those food resources, that’s the big story of making sure this species is going to do well into the future,” she said.

It isn’t uncommon for wildlife center workers to have starving pelicans on their hands while the birds are up here. Sometimes pelicans stay north for too long, into late fall and early winter, and get stuck when food runs out.

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Bird bullies: American white pelicans gang up on a smaller cousin

BY ETHAN SHAW DECEMBER 14 2017

The United States plays host to two kinds of native pelican: the brown and the American white. Both are web-footed, giant-beaked, throat-pouched and fish-loving – but, otherwise, distinct as can be. The brown pelican is a graceful pterodactyl-esque seabird that hugs cresting waves and performs steep, extravagant plunge-dives after fish:

The American white pelican, a snowy-feathered giant which may be more than twice the brown's size, is as much a bird of inland freshwater as the seashore. Ponderous on the wing, it employs a laidback fishing method instead of aerial acrobatics, paddling and dabbling with its bill and sometimes whole head submerged. The birds often fish communally, trawling bunched together in unison and also cooperating to herd fish into shallows:

White and brown pelicans overlap in range, especially this time of year, when the cousins may share wintering bays and seashores on the US Gulf Coast, Mexico and Central America. And recently, on the western coast of Florida, an unusually intense encounter between the two played out in a harbour.

Amanda Hipps, a graduate student at Florida Atlantic University who studies the gopher tortoise, photographed the interspecies interaction, which she watched from a boat in the fishing village of Cortez south of Tampa Bay. She told me she noticed four white pelicans initially in the vicinity of the brown, and began taking pictures since the proximity allowed for an interesting size comparison. (Brown pelicans are plenty big birds, mind you, but the American white pelican – sometimes weighing more than nine kilograms [20 lbs.] and spreading black-rimmed wings that may be three metres [ten feet] across – ranks among the very largest birds in North America.)

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Pelican storm: Teamwork saves 200 birds along Highway 48

Posted: Friday, December 8, 2017 10:25 pm

By RICK KELLEY Staff Writer

HARLINGEN — More than 200 brown pelicans were rescued by volunteers along State Highway 48 Thursday, which was in stark contrast to a vehicular massacre of the birds one year ago.

The “Pelican Team” was created following two storm-filled days last December after cold fronts created conditions forcing pelicans onto the roadway that stretches from Port Isabel to Brownsville. Between 60 and 100 birds perished under the wheels of vehicles along a stretch of highway with a 75-mph speed limit.

This year between a dozen and two dozen birds were lost, but the numbers were far fewer due to the efforts of the Pelican Team as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas General Land Office, Texas game wardens, Good Samaritans and the Port Isabel Volunteer Fire Department.

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What's killing brown pelicans on Grand Isle?

By Mark Schleifstein,

on February 04, 2016 at 3:19 PM

 

As many as 35 brown pelicans have been found dead on Grand Isle in the past two weeks, prompting an investigation by scientists with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. They've dismissed suspicions that the birds were shot but have yet to determine the cause of death.

The dead pelicans were first reported to the Grand Isle Police Department, which asked state officials to investigate. "In the wintertime, we always get some calls about dead pelicans, but this seems to be an extraordinary amount," said Cheryl McCormack, secretary to Police Chief Euris DuBois. "We're alarmed about the number of them."

The brown pelican, Louisiana's state bird, was removed from the federal list of endangered and threatened species in 2009, but it is still protected under federal law. The birds had largely vanished from Louisiana's coast by the mid-1960s, after exposure to the pesticide DDT resulted in too-fragile eggshells.

More than 1,200 pelicans were imported from Florida in 1968. But the time of delisting, there were more than 12,000 breeding pairs in Texas and Louisiana.

Several dead brown pelicans collected by the Grand Isle Police Department in recent days have been turned over to wildlife officials, and others were being collected on Wednesday (Feb. 3) for testing, said Michael Seymour, a non-game ornithologist with Wildlife and Fisheries. He said there have been several estimates of the number of dead birds, including 14 along several miles of beaches and 20 in a single mile of beach. A survey by a Wildlife and Fisheries employee found 15 or more birds over several miles.

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Throats slit, Florida pelicans dying in serial slashings

By Letitia Stein

TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - Brown pelicans with slit throat pouches have been washing up this month in south Florida, triggering community outcry as authorities investigate what they suspect are serial slashings.

About 10 birds have died, and another four were injured, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The culprit apparently used a knife to slit the large gullets beneath their beaks, spokesman Robert Dube said.

The birds use the oversized pouches to swallow fish skimmed from the water. Once slashed, they can starve to death.

"It's a slow, agonizing death for these animals," Dube said.

The maimed pelicans have been turning up around the lower Florida Keys, located in the southernmost part of the state.

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Drastic Drop in Baby Brown Pelicans: Blame El Niño?

By Becky Oskin, Senior Writer | June 04, 2014 03:12pm ET

An endangered species success story is suffering this year, perhaps because of El Niño.

California brown pelicans almost completely failed to breed at their nesting sites in Mexico this year, surveys have found. Scientists are reluctant to blame any one cause for the drastic decline in fuzzy-headed baby pelicans, but a similar drop in breeding numbers struck during previous El Niño events. 

"Over the years, we've seen that during an El Niño, their breeding effort goes way down," said Daniel Anderson, a University of California, Davis wildlife biologist who has monitored California brown pelicans for 46 years. Overfishing of sardines and habitat loss could also be hurting the pelican population, Anderson said.

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Pelicans found with pouches slashed in Keys

BIG PINE KEY, Fla. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the deaths of several brown pelicans found with their pouches slashed in the Florida Keys.

Florida Keys Wildlife Refuge Director Maya Totman said Friday that 10 pelicans have been found dead.

The birds are being found with the large pouches they use to catch food almost entirely cut through. The pelicans are left unable to hunt and swallow their food, leaving them to starve to death slowly.

"With the way the cuts are done, fish slide out of the pouch and the bird can't eat. It gets weaker and weaker and dies," Totman tells The Key West Citizen (http://bit.ly/J5d4ju )

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Sardine crash may be hurting brown pelicans

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Scientists and conservation groups are worried the crash in West Coast sardines that has triggered deep cutbacks in commercial fishing is also starving brown pelicans that feed off California, Oregon and Washington.

Federal budget cuts have left scientists unable to do the research to figure out exactly what is going on. But the bits and pieces emerging don't look good.

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Swanky San Diego beach community's thriving bird population causing a stink

SAN DIEGO –  La Jolla's jagged coastline is strictly protected by environmental laws to ensure the San Diego community remains the kind of seaside jewel that has attracted swanky restaurants, top-flight hotels and some of the nation's rich and famous, including billionaire businessman Irwin Jacobs and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Tourists flock to the place. So do birds. Lots of birds. And with those birds comes lots of poop.

So rather than gasping in amazement at the beautiful views, some are holding their noses from the stench coming from the droppings that cake coastal rocks and outcroppings near its business district.

"We've had to relocate tables inside because when people go out to the patio, some are like 'Oh my God. I can't handle the smell,'" said Christina Collignon, a hostess at Eddie V's, a steak and seafood restaurant perched on a cliff straight up from the guano-coated rocks.

On a recent afternoon, tourists on spring break walked along the sea wall. Some scrunched up their faces in disgust.

"It smells like something dead," said Meghan Brummett as she looked at the birds with her husband and children. The family was visiting from Brawley, a farming town two hours east of San Diego.

Biologists say the odor is the smell of success: Environmental protections put in place over the past few decades have brought back endangered species.

Cormorants and brown pelicans nearly became extinct in the 1970s because of the pesticide DDT. The brown pelican was taken off the federal endangered species list in 2010, and its population, including the Caribbean and Latin America, is estimated at more than 650,000. The total U.S. cormorant population is about 2 million.

La Jolla is a state-designated area of "special biological significance." That means California strictly regulates its waters to protect its abundant marine life, which also attracts birds.

"We're kind of a victim of our own success," said Robert Pitman, a marine biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla. "We've provided a lot of bird protections so now we're getting a lot of birds. I think we're going to be seeing more of these conflicts come about, and I think we'll have to deal with them on a case-by-case basis. I think there'll have to be compromises all around."

In Canada, guano from cormorants has been blamed for the destruction of native vegetation, while in Mississippi, catfish farmers loathe the sleek, black birds because their keen fishing skills cost them millions every year.

In La Jolla, the birds took over the rocks after the city prohibited people from walking there years ago for safety reasons. There has been little rain to wash away the feces.

George Hauer, who owns the gourmet restaurant George's At The Cove, launched an online petition that has garnered more than 1500 signatures. It states: "The cormorant colony at the La Jolla cove has reached critical mass with their excrement. The smell is overtaking the entire village. The result is a loss of business and a potential public health disaster."

Any cleaning method will require a permit, city officials say. The area is regulated by several government agencies. Washing it with a non-toxic solution would cause concern because of the run off into the ocean, state officials say. Even using just water could cause problems since guano discharged into the ocean in high concentrations would be considered a pollutant.

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner — lauded by animal lovers for placing a security camera at a nearby beach to catch anyone harassing seals there — has promised to find a fix. He wants something a solution before summer arrives and tourism peaks. He's suggesting the rocks be "vacuumed," but hasn't supplied details.

Pitman said vacuuming would not work. He personally recommends something simpler: Sounding a horn over a period of weeks to scare off the birds.

Jessica Manns said it would be a shame to see the birds relocate.

"I think they are a tourist attraction and this is a tourist area so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try to get rid of them," said Manns, a waitress who often hears complaints about the stench wafting by the seaside tables at the Goldfish Point Cafe.

On a recent afternoon, nearby tourists snapped photos of the cormorants and pelicans standing stoically on their droppings next to seals, basking in the sun.

"I guess it's the price you have to pay for having a locale this close to paradise," said waiter Anton Marek. "I wish there was something we could do about it honestly, but it's also a part of nature. People come here because they want to see nature."

He added with a shrug: "Poop is a part of nature."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/08/oh-poop-swanky-san-diego-beach-community-thriving-bird-population-causing-stink/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fnational+%28Internal+-+US+Latest+-+Text%29#ixzz2Ps2n0Lif

Pelicans blown north by Sandy get ride home to Florida

Two brown pelicans blown to Rhode Island by the winds of Hurricane Sandy were flying back Saturday to their natural habitat in Florida -- via a private plane.

The first of the large birds, whose wingspans measure 6 to 7 feet, was found on the side of a road at Fishermen's Memorial State Park on Nov. 7, nine days after the storm made landfall in New Jersey, said Jennifer Brooks, clinic director at the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Rhode Island.

The bird, a juvenile likely from a nest in North Carolina, had been tagged by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and records showed it was presumed to have died, she said.

The second pelican landed on a fishing boat about 120 miles south of Block Island the following day, she said. The crew of the boat, which provides fish to SeaWorld theme parks, fed the bird for several days before docking.

"They were a little bit thin, they were a little beat up from the storm," Brooks said of the birds. They had lost tail feathers and suffered scratches to their throat pouches, which are prone to frostbite in northern climates, Brooks said.

Animal workers had been keeping the birds in an outdoor shelter before moving them into a camping tent inside the clinic.


Continued: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/17/15241573-pelicans-blown-north-by-sandy-get-ride-home-to-florida?lite