After raising concerns about starving and dying brown pelicans, U.S. Fish and Wildlife says things are looking much better on the Oregon coast.
Roy Lowe with the FWS office in Newport says they’ve received no calls from the public today, and when he surveyed the beach this morning he didn’t see any pelicans at all. He says reports of pelican sightings on birding websites and e-mail lists are also down. He hopes the public is getting the message to leave the birds alone.
Some new information and perspective on the coastal brown pelican die-off from Sharnelle Fee with the Wildlife Center of the North Coast in Astoria.
It’s been a busy season for them. It all started with the massive die-off of shorebirds during last fall’s algae bloom. They took in nearly 750 birds over a six-day period.
Then about three weeks ago, it was an increasing number of pelicans brought in for injuries. Fee says heavy winds and high surf along the coast make it difficult for the brown pelican to hunt for fish. The birds get hurt as the dive into the big waves.
Lately, they’ve seen more of the starving pelicans.
California Brown Pelican. Courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife
We’re at the beginning of what could be another major die-off of Brown Pelicans along the Oregon Coast.
Things are developing so quickly no one really knows yet how many of the birds have died, or how much worse things will get. Dawn Grafe with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says calls to the agency started coming in only Monday.
Grafe says the dead and dying birds are mostly adults, sexually mature birds that normally should be in Southern California or Mexico for breeding season. “They should not be off the Oregon coast. This is unusual.” says Grafe. “By now they should all be gone.”
In a typical year, most brown pelicans migrate south by the end of November. Grafe says this year, about 1,000 birds have stayed behind.
California Brown Pelican. Courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife
The sudden die-off of West Coast Brown Pelicans last winter was big enough to make national news. At first, wildlife officials thought a combination of climate change and bad luck was to blame. The theory, back then, is that the Pelicans delayed migrating south from the Oregon Coast because of the gradually warming winters. So when the nasty storm hit in December, it caught the Pelicans off guard and hundreds were killed.
But an article in the Metro Santa Cruz newspaper raises questions about what really caused the die-off. Could it be that a naturally occurring toxin called saxitoxin also played a role in the deaths? The die-off happened when the entire Oregon Coast was closed to mussel harvesting because of elevated levels of saxitoxin. Some of the highest levels were recorded near the mouth of the Columbia River, which is also a major roost for the Pelicans.
Because the dead Pelicans weren’t tested at the time for saxitoxin, the connection is impossible to prove. But the story is a fascinating read of detective work and science.
