Hello, tweeters.

I'm surprised not to read anything about Brown Pelicans in all the accounts of the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festivals. I do realize they're not shorebirds, but I saw mentions of King Eiders and Peregrine Falcons and other such non-shorebirds.

To me at the coast this weekend the most astonishing thing was the number of pelicans and the fact that all we saw were adults in full breeding plumage. There may have been immatures present, but none flew by us among the dozens and dozens of pelicans streaming out of a roost at Westport. Pelicans in spring? A few years ago this would have been eye-popping, but I haven't detected a single popped eye among birders this weekend.

I would have thought that the Pacific coastal population (those breeding in southern California and northern Mexico) would have been at breeding colonies right now. It's possible that a strong El Ni?o is preventing breeding, as sometimes these populations forgo breeding during an El Ni?o event. Some news sites have claimed this last winter as a strong El Ni?o period, perhaps responsible for all the winter storms in California (and our spring storms right now?). But the El Ni?o conditions are predicted to weaken over the summer, so the effects shouldn't be so strong at this time.

I hope that the North American Birds editors will discuss this pelican phenomenon all up and down the Pacific coast, as what is happening now on the coast of Washington is unprecedented. Parenthetically, does anyone know how many pelicans were reported on the Grays Harbor Christmas Bird Count?
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Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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