Changes have brown pelicans flying north along the Oregon coast earlier this year

Brown pelicans nest in the winter in Southern California and Mexico and thousands spend the summer in the Pacific Northwest before migrating south in September and October.

In a typical year the first few individual pelicans will begin moving north through Lincoln County around April 1 but birdwatchers usually don’t see large numbers until May and June. But this year, former U.S. Fish & Wildlife manager Roy W. Lowe of Waldport noted a number of pelicans in the Newport area on March 5 and many were in breeding plumage “which we don’t often get to see here.” Lowe checked with a researcher in Crescent City, Calif. and she was seeing the early returning birds in that area as well.

“The numbers have only continued to increase with hundreds observed passing Yaquina Head on April 2,” Lowe said. “This early movement is unprecedented in the 41 years I have lived here.”

Lowe said the reasons for the early movement is unknown.  Two major breeding colonies in the Channel Islands had concluded their nesting activity in late March “and perhaps these birds were moving north earlier.”

“There is also a seabird starvation die-off event occurring off the Southern California coast affecting brown pelicans,” he said. “A wildlife rehab veterinarian I communicated with thought perhaps some birds were leaving the area due to a lack of forage but I think that was mostly wishful thinking.”

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