Brown Pelicans are dying on the Oregon coast

[Donna]

OREGON COAST - Brown Pelicans are washing up dead along the Oregon coast and those that are surviving are starving and begging for food from beachcombers, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

According to wildlife officials, the pelicans usually head south in large numbers in October. But this winter, a large number of them stayed along the Oregon coast and recent storms and high winds have limited their ability to hunt and dive for food.

Should you feed them?

The answer is NO. The pelicans have a particular diet and despite your good intentions, you may be doing them more harm than good. For example, feeding them the bones and heads of fish can cause damage to their throat pouch and fish bait may be contaminated with harmful bacteria or be treated with chemicals that can make a pelican very ill.

What can you do?

If you come across a Brown Pelican that appears to be starving...

    * If the bird is in the area of the coast from Astoria to Yachats, call the Wildlife Center of the North Coast at (503) 338-3954.
    * If the bird is in the area of the coast from Florence south to Gold Beach, call Free Flight Bird Rehabilitation at (541) 347-3882.

If you come across a dead Brown Pelican...

    * Leave it where you found it.  Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act it is illegal to possess any part of a migratory bird, dead or alive.
    * Contact the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team at (206) 221-6893.

[Donna]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California brown pelicans have recently been dying in large numbers for reasons wildlife officials don't yet fully understand.

Organizations like the International Bird Rescue Research Center are maxed out, with no more room and little money left to help, spokesman Paul Kelway said.

There are usually about 400 pelicans among the more than 2,000 birds the San Pedro center takes in every year, but it has received more than 300 pelicans in the last three weeks. About 100 sick pelicans from Santa Barbara were sent to the IBRRC's Northern California center, and a quarter of all the pelicans received at the two centers in the last three weeks have died, Kelway said.

"Many of them were severely emaciated and hypothermic, and we couldn't get to them in time," Kelway said.

The Southern California center released 14 pelicans Wednesday afternoon to make room for more of the ailing birds. At Royal Palms State Beach in San Pedro, rescue workers lined the pet kennels along the rocky shoreline and opened the doors. The pelicans flew right out.

The Coast Guard reported a group of sick birds in the Los Angeles Harbor on Tuesday. Rescue workers found around 30 dead birds and rounded up 30 more that were sick and wet.

Biologists point to several reasons why more birds need help.

"This is an El Nino year. The weather is topsy turvy. Storms are forcing the fish deeper into the ocean, or the fish are in different places than they normally would be. The pelicans are not finding food and they are starving," Kelway explained.

"Something is also contaminating their feathers and stopping them from being weatherproof," he said. "The storms have been the final nail in the coffin."

Some parts of Los Angeles County have received close to 12 inches of rain in the last few weeks. The birds, already weak from lack of food, have gotten soaked, and in the ocean they've found themselves bathed in a murky runoff goo that has coated their already faltering feathers with a layer of grease. Another possible cause is an algae bloom, Kelway said.

Feathers have been taken from the sick birds and sent to a lab, he said.

When there is no food in the water, the birds will look on land, Kelway said, and they're ailing in very public places — on piers, at restaurants, hotels, harbors and beaches.

"People are upset," he said. "They expect us to rescue these birds."

About 1,000 California brown pelicans stayed in Oregon this year instead of migrating south to breeding grounds.

It could be a natural pelican die-off, Kelway said, but biologists don't know yet.

The research center hopes to release several more pelicans over the next week. Warmer temperatures should help, he said.

It is costing the two centers about $3,000 a day to care for the pelicans, which eat around 1,000 pounds of fish each day.

The rescues will have to do some serious fundraising, pushing their "Adopt a Pelican" and "Pelican Partner" programs, Kelway said.

All of the pelicans are banded, so if they get in trouble again, there will be a record. Some of the birds recuperating at the centers have been at the shelters before, Kelway said, although none of those released Wednesday was a repeat customer.

The brown pelican nearly became extinct in the early 1970s because of the pesticide DDT — the birds ate tainted fish and laid such thin-shelled eggs that they broke during incubation. But when DDT was banned in 1972, the birds bounced back, and today the brown pelican is prevalent along the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, California, Washington and Oregon.

The brown pelican was taken off the federal endangered species list in November, and its global population, including the Caribbean and Latin America, is estimated at 650,000.

[Donna]

Updated: 1:14 pm PST February 12, 2010
SAUSALITO, Calif. -- Wildlife experts statewide are investigating what they're calling a crisis in the health of the formerly endangered California brown pelicans.

According to the California Department of Fish and Game, hundreds of sick, injured and dead brown pelicans have been found along the California coastline since mid-January.

The International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia in Solano County is assisting more than 100 of the sick, injured and disoriented birds. Another 200 are being cared for in Southern California.

It is not yet known what is causing the illnesses. Wildlife experts are speculating about the possibility of urban runoff from recent winter storms.

Additionally, some of the birds may be having trouble locating their traditional food sources, anchovies and sardines, according to the Department of Fish and Game.

California brown pelicans were removed from state and federal endangered species lists in 2009.

Wildlife officials advised those who find sick or dead pelicans to call (866) WILD-911. Feeding sick or injured pelicans is not advised.

[MAK]

 

[Annette]

Oh no! 

[Bird Crazy]

 

[Donna]

The San Pedro nonprofit group charged with treating sick pelicans is suffering an affliction of its own: strapped finances.

That's because a cold and starving pelican eats a whopping 6 pounds of fish a day -- half its body weight.

Hundreds of brown pelicans turned up dead or ailing along the West Coast in January after what researchers said was a miscalculation: They strayed to the far northern edge of their range, stayed too long and ran out of food. When they came south, they found food scant here too.

So they turned up listless on beaches or begging for food in parking lots, and were rescued by San Pedro's Oiled Bird Care and Education Center.

The facility is run by the International Bird Rescue Research Center, which has a $1.1-million annual budget and is one of the largest in the state's network of groups that rescue birds affected by oil spills.

The group was able to save about two-thirds of the 435 pelicans it has treated so far at its two coastal centers, but the effort has meant shoveling out $11,000 a month for pelican all-you-can-eat seafood dinners.

"The good thing about pelicans is that they eat a lot," said spokesman Paul Kelway. "And the tough thing about pelicans is that they eat a lot."

Good, because ravenous pelicans recover quickly. Tough, because the cost of hundreds of pounds of frozen sardines every day at the San Pedro center has drawn down the group's reserves.

Pelicans "are built to stuff themselves," said Dave Jessup, a wildlife veterinarian who manages the state Fish and Game Department's Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center in Santa Cruz. "They eat and gorge, and sometimes they can't fly very well for several hours."

The International Bird Rescue Research Center was formed in the 1970s to respond to oil spills. For years, it has relied primarily on state funds, oil-spill contracts and reimbursements from polluters.

But because this year's pelican malady was not caused by an oil spill, the organization has had to dig into its own coffers to pay for pelican care.

It has tapped the same donors repeatedly, and finally resorted to triage, Kelway said. "It's like having 200 Labradors turn up at your house at once," he said.

During a recent feeding at the center, the pelicans' appetite was like a gathering cloud.

Workers approached with buckets of sardines, and the big birds came to attention, yellow heads high, eyes as big as nickels watching every move.

The workers edged into the pens. The pelicans hop-hopped closer.

A worker sloshed sardines into a tub, then ducked.

Dozens of flapping, waddling pelicans surged forward, knocking each other with huge wings and stepping on an unfortunate gull in their midst. Stretching their necks, they used long bills like chopsticks, snatching fish six at a time and tipping back their heads to gulp them.

"Ridiculous birds," one worker muttered, watching.

In seconds, the fish were gone. A few pelicans lingered, disconsolate, staring into the empty tubs.

At the height of the pelican crisis, Kelway said, there were more than 200 birds at the San Pedro center, and people kept calling with more rescue requests.

Organizers had to tell some callers to wait. Volunteers were putting in 14-hour days, and funds were stretched thin.

This week, the calls began to wane at last, and the number of pelicans at the center dropped to 100. With time to assess, organizers are considering a new direction for bird rescues.

The pelican episode has made it clear that their efforts must expand beyond oil spill response, Kelway said.

The group has long aided injured birds. But now organizers want to establish a well-funded service for mass rescues of wildlife of all kinds, Kelway said. That means less reliance on oil spill money and more fundraising, he said.

The shift comes as other large die-offs unrelated to oil spills have increased in recent years, including those caused by algae blooms, he said. But there is another driver: public attitudes. "What was exposed here was a public expectation that someone will come take care of these animals," Kelway said.

In some ways, bird rescue is a victim of its own success: Californians now assume when they see a sick bird that someone will care for it, he said.

For now, although pelicans have eaten through much of the bird-rescue group's food budget for the entire year, organizers say that while their finances are spare, they are beginning to develop new sources of support.

Meanwhile, the pelicans are recovering. When released after a week or so of gluttony, they are eager to go, said Diana Pereira, an intern at the center. "Eight or nine will all fly away together," she said. "It's very nice."

[Donna]

Answers Found to Pelican Mass Stranding Mystery

The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) is reporting that the primary causes of the recent Brown Pelican mass stranding (involving varying degrees of incapacitation of hundreds of birds) along the Oregon and California Coast are related to shortages of preferred prey items, such as anchovies and sardines, and rough winter weather likely related to the current El Niño event.

CDFG, the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center, Sea World San Diego and the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) pooled their efforts to determine the causes for the bird deaths and strandings, and ruled out infectious disease and marine toxins as major contributory factors. Some pelicans have had waterproofing problems with their feathers, possibly related to storm runoff from recent heavy coastal rains.


More than 300 birds are being rehabilitated at the IBRRC facilities in San Pedro and Cordelia, California. CDFG has been donating frozen trout to organizations conducting the rescue feeding. Rehabilitation has been taking one to two weeks and rescued birds are said to be responding well to treatment. Birds first became stranded around the middle of January but the numbers being recovered each day have greatly diminished in recent days.

“When you allow overfishing of any seabird’s prey base and then compound that with impacts from El Nino events, which may become stronger or more common with climate change, you are spelling disaster for the bird. Their prey bases have got to be better protected if they are to survive long term,� said Dr. Jessica Hardesty Norris, American Bird Conservancy Seabird Program Director.



Environment, Oregon Coast, Outdoors »
Brown pelicans won't fly south from Oregon coast and that worries scientists

Unlike past years, they've refused to return to California.

In January, scientists were stunned to see hundreds of brown pelicans that normally fly south before winter lingering on the Oregon coast.

Now it's March and dozens are still here.

"This is a first for us," said Roy Lowe, seabird specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Biologists are worried. Birds have starved to death and been pummeled by storms. Scientists are also perplexed about why they've altered their habits. Climate change could be a factor -- no one really knows for sure.

But last week, birders counted dozens on the coast. Lowe said there have been sightings of 60 in Newport, 25 at Charleston and seven in Depoe Bay.

"Maybe some of them will survive the spring," he said. "I haven't heard of any moralities. They haven't looked good for a long time, but they continue to hang in there."

The downwelling ocean conditions off the coast this time of year do not support an abundance of forage fish for the pelicans. Lowe said they could be finding food in estuaries and lower bays, but they're also scavenging.

"They've been hanging around where people are crabbing and going for any bits of fallen food," said Deborah Jaques,  a wildlife biologist in Astoria who contracts with state and federal governments.

In the summer, flocks of about 20,000 brown pelicans live on the Oregon Coast and then fly to Southern California and Mexico before winter to breed.

Scientists said the El Nino conditions, with warmer ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, could have affected the brown pelican's food supply.

In January, many were found injured by storms or starved to death.

Rescued brown pelicans overwhelmed the Wildlife Center of the North Coast near Astoria, which rehabilitates sick and injured seabirds. Wildlife rehabilitators in California were hit with a similar phenomenon as well.

The International Bird Rescue Center received about 500 brown pelicans over six weeks in January and February, said regional manager Paul Kelway.

He said they were suffering from hypothermia and were emaciated.

"Food was clearly an issue," he said. "Some of them stayed late in Oregon. And some of those birds that were struggling for food there decided to head south expecting to find more food."

Kelway said the group's centers are still receiving emaciated brown pelicans but far fewer than last month.

The center near Astoria, which is caring for about 40 brown pelicans, has not received any new ones recently.

"Most of them have recovered," said Sharnelle Fee,  director of the center. "But we are holding them through the worst of winter. We want there to be good food out there before we let them go."

They're being kept in a 150-foot-long flight cage, giving them plenty of room to stay fit so they can survive in the wild.

Though few struggling brown pelicans have been seen on the north coast since January, the center's volunteers did rescue one on Saturday on Cannon Beach.

"This bird was getting pummeled in the surf," Fee said. "And people were prohibiting it from coming out of it. Dogs and children were chasing it."

The pelican, which has a limp in one leg, is now recovering at her center.

She said it's important that when people see a struggling bird to leave it alone and to keep a good distance.

Fee urged the public to call her center's pager at 503-338-3954 to  report any injured or problem pelicans.

Like all seabirds, brown pelicans are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it illegal to capture, kill or possess one.

Lowe has no idea what next year will bring. And scientists do not know exactly why the birds have mysteriously shifted their longtime habits.

"We're beginning to think that we need to start preparing for the fact that this might not be the last time that we see this occur," Kelway said.