The first of what will likely be a lot more American White Pelicans have
arrived at Deer Lagoon on Whidbey. I saw them early this morning, and
some locals told me they arrived yesterday afternoon.

This species first arrived in numbers on June 14, 2016 and reached as
many as 205 that year. In 2017, they first arrived on May 7th, and also
maxed out at 205. In 2018, they first arrived on April 24th and maxed
out in mid summer at 240 birds. Last year they first arrived on April
20th, but only maxed out at 84. I'm not sure why the decrease in numbers
last year, but I did noticed that they spent a lot more time feeding
along the bay compared to previous years. One has to wonder how many
fish could possibly be left in the marsh side of the lagoon after three
years of those huge birds feeding.

Unfortunately, I have seen no evidence of any breeding going on at the
lagoon area.

George
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20200413/d9a3fce6/attachment.html>