Early concentrations of Brown Pelicans along southern Oregon coast

Abstract

The California Brown Pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis californicus ), which nests in southern California and Mexico, wanders north along the coast after the breeding season, sometimes as far as southern British Columbia (A.O.U. 1957). Anderson and Anderson (1976) and Ainley (1972) report that Mexico-originating pelicans disperse north in late summer and fall, increasing California coastal counts from late July through early November each year. Gabrielson and Jewett (1940) and Bayer (1977) reported that the northward flight into Oregon apparently occurs in July, and there are usually few present after the first of November. Similarly, Marshall (1969) reported that the Brown Pelican appeared regularly in the Netarts-Tillamook Bay area and more southern coastal points from August through November and indicated that a recent high count in Oregon was 110 in the Netarts-Tillamook Bay area on 27 August 1967. Bayer (1977) simultaneously observed 182 immature and 12 adult Brown Pelicans in the Yaquina estuary in October 1975 but noted that the number of adult pelicans (less than 20) observed in the Yaquina estuary seemed to remain relatively unchanged from year to year. He observed no more than 60 birds at a time in the Yaquina estuary in other years.