> What's interesting to me is that AWPE is considered a very rare fluke
> vagrant here on the coast, but when I looked back through Vancouver records
> for the last 12 yrs, what we have is a small cluster of records in late May
> and early June which in 1991 yielded an average arrival here on the coast
> of May 29. Darned if 1992's 5 AWPE didn't arrive *exactly* on that date a
> year later. Hot stuff.
>
> Preening of my statistical ego aside :-), what that *seems* to suggest is
> that, *if* observers are in the right place at the right time, we'll see a
> regular, if late, migration or occurrence of a small group of AWPE along
> the inner coast of Georgia Strait (and that raises the question of whether
> they also turn up in spring with equal regularity on the E coast of
> Vancouver Is.), that has staged here (i.e, loafed for a week or so off the
> Roberts Bank Coalport Jetty). No-one knows if they turn inland here on
> their way to a breeding lake, or continue up the coast. Or whether these
> are failed or non-breeders already out wandering around for lack of
> anything better to do before the fall migration.
>
> My questions are: if they are late migrants, where do they hang a right
> turn to go inland? In view of the lateness of these migrants, are they
> non-breeders, though with few exceptions they're in definitive alternate
> adult plumages? And if they are breeders, do they go somewhere else than
> Stum L. to nest?

This is really neat Michael! I would guess that that these are not late
migrants, as the late May dates are too late after arrival dates at
colonies, a big bird like this needs plenty of time to incubate and raise
young. Either these are failed breeders or younger non-breeding birds, I
imagine that it takes a few years for White Pelicans to become sexually
mature. This is certainly true in Brown and Peruvian Pelicans. You
mentioned that these are Definitive Alternate birds, does this mean that
they have the vertical plate on the bill? If they do, I think that this
would be evidence that these late birds are failed breeders. As far as I
know (and I don't know much about pelicans) only the full breeding adults
get this bill adornment. Once the adults are feeding chicks, they drop
this thing and get some dusky feathers on the head. I may have this
wrong as it is off the top of my head, but it should be mentioned in
Palmer's volume that includes pelicans. So in general, the exact plumage
state may be helpful in elucidating exactly what the story is on these
early summer Pelicans.
I imagine that failed breeders may be selected to leave the colony
area, at least in some years, since they would be in competition
with other pelicans for the same fish stocks. Once you are not tied down
to the colony, you can roam looking for any better fishing options that
may be available.

Al Jaramillo
jaramill at sfu.ca
Vancouver, B.C.