Pelican Banding

Yesterday, we went to Pelican Island which is a Corps of Engineers dredge spoil island in Pamlico Sound. We all met at the boat launch at Oegon Inlet and were given a lift to the island by the Coast Guard on two boats a large MLB and a small twenty footer whaler type. When we left the dock there were small craft warnings and the weather forecast was anything but good, however as it turned out the weather was perfect. After the Coast Guard landed us on the island, the adult birds became excited and took flight. Fortunately they aren't aggressive, so we didn't have any birds dive bombing us.

I know a picture of someone putting on boots is boring, but it is the first good picture we have of James. The other guy is one of the banders and the rings hanging around his neck are the bands which are put on the right leg of the pelican.


Many shore birds make a small indentation in the sand and lay their egg in the indentation. They don't bother building a nest or camouflaging the egg. This egg is an endangered oyster catcher's egg that was just laying in the sand. When you see this, you can understand why it is necessary to close beaches when endangered shore birds are nesting. Only idiots would oppose such a needed safeguard.

The young pelicans are grouped up for the most part similar to teenagers on a Friday night. They for the most part are very excitable and will try to bite anyone in reach. Pelicans have a tooth type protrusion at the end of their upper beak which allows them to hold on to their catch of fish.


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Okay! So we have a group of young excitable pelicans which may strike out at this unknown threat they have never laid eyes on, and each pelican has a sharp tooth at the end of it's beak. Now stick your hand in there, hold the beak closed and gab both wings just behind the body. By the way, be careful to not close off his nostrils on the top of the beak.










These guys are to small for banding, but they still act out screaming, grunting and striking at anything that gets in their way. Actually, one sort of looks like Jimmy Durante. You do remember Jimmy Durante. Don't you?






Well, Patty has it mostly right. She should have the wings clasped just behind the body. That serves two purposes. One, the bird is pretty well immobilized and won't beat you with it's wings. Two, and most importantly when the wings are grabbed in the back near the body, the poop machine is pointed away from you. Any of you science types out there distressed over my non-anatomical writings have never grabbed an excited pelican. Actually, Patty was more concerned about injuring the pelican than in getting pooped.







Now this guy has it right. Notice where the business end of the poop machine is pointed. There is no way the guy holding the bird is going to get messy. I wonder if the guy doing the banding is aware of the danger he is facing. No matter what you do, you will smell worse than any barnyard or chicken house, of which I have heard. After being washed with Clorox, our shoes are still outside.

Lee holding the pelican he caught and James banding the bird. Lee is an intern at Alligator River NWR, and James is an intern here at Pea Island NWR. Both of them are great guys and we enjoy being around them.



The lady in the white blouse is Abbey Reibel the Pea Island volunteer coordinator. She is a real pleasure to work with and has made our stay very enjoyable.

Will, another on of the Pea Island interns and all around good guy has captured a big one which he is obviously proud.

Jess, an Alligator River intern getting ready to jump into the pile. Jess is one of those people who seem to smile most of the time.

Pelicans build little mounds of sticks and grass on which to lay their eggs. We saw a number of these with either one or two eggs. The mound is about six to eight inches high and just keeps the eggs off the sand. There were some nests in low scrub trees, which were easy to see and reach into.

We actually saw this little guy hatch out and wondered if we were doing more harm than good by keeping mom away from her nest. There were a large number of hatchlings on the island, which made us curious about the possible increased mortality rate because of our presence



Pat was called "Mother Earth" by the teachers a her school in Mobile and this picture sort of confirms it. In reality, one of the weird things that happened after the birds were banded was they would gather around one of the humans. It wasn't unusual for birds to make movement difficult because of their grouping up around people. I guess that since we ran the parents off, the young sought us as surrogates. Maybe, maybe not, who knows?

When the banding was done, we went over to a Royal Tern rookery. They are truly beautiful birds and made quite a spectacle as they flew on our approach.


The chicks are similar to chickens in that they are plain and devoid of interesting color as compared to the adults. There are three eggs just sitting in small depressions in the sand, but unlike the pelicans, I don't think the terns abandoned their chicks or eggs. We were within about ten to fifteen feet from the colony.

Another satisfying and interesting day drew to a close with the boat ride back to the docks at Oregon Inlet. We both experienced some things we had never done before,
and had mixed emotions about our effect on the birds and whether the discomfort caused them was necessary.