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Thread: Case of the Disappearing Pelican

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    Default Case of the Disappearing Pelican

    yesterday when I was down at the beach one of these flew in and landed 5 feet from me, I just looked it up to see what it was...



    Quote Early in January, brown pelicans began falling out of the air from Baja, California to Southern Oregon. Reports of these large, brown birds crashing into cars and boats , wandering disoriented along beaches, or huddled in backyards alarmed wildlife experts, who had thought the brown pelican was on the verge of return.

    The brown pelican earned a spot on the endangered species list in the California/Nevada region in 1970 , when their numbers began to plummet as a result of DDT. Banned in the U.S. in 1972 , DDT causes the shells of avian eggs to thin and crack, killing the embryos before they can mature.

    The brown pelican measures about 4.5 feet from beak to tail at maturity, and weighs 8 to 20 pounds. With a wingspan between 6.5 and 7.5 feet, brown pelicans are the smallest members of the eight pelican species, and can be identified by their brown and white necks, white heads with pale yellow crowns, blackish-brown belly and coal black legs and feet.

    Brown pelicans can live up to 40 years and are strong swimmers, but the young are barely able to fly. Virtually unchanged since they first appeared on earth some 40 million years ago, pelicans spend their lives along coasts, rarely more than 20 miles from a shoreline, and as such they are susceptible to all the pollution humans generate. They can go blind from repeated diving into polluted waters to fish, and easily succumb to avian botulism, caused by eating diseased fish found in the warm, shallow waters along the shoreline.

    In the past month, ornithologists have recorded about 460 sick or dead brown pelicans. The survivors appear malnourished and disoriented. Some suspect these unfortunates were driven south from the Oregon coast after a severe winter storm brought high winds and disastrous conditions at sea.
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    It was very unsteady on its feet, I was wondering if the first radiation cloud had just passed...

    now I see it has been affecting many for a while.

    I'm not used to seeing a single Pelican, they are normally a group...

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    Default Re: Case of the Disappearing Pelican

    They probably have been poisoned from eating the fish that were poisoned from the toxic algae blooms ----- I expect that other fish-eaters including seas, sea lions, sea-gulls, etc. will also be affected.

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    Default Re: Case of the Disappearing Pelican

    I'm trying to keep track of affects on wildlife right now if anyone has other articles to add...

    one thing I noticed yesterday, no Dolphins for the first time I can remember...

    any sightings north or south of an enormous POD moving through?

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