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Project Noah Nature School
This Brown Pelican was smaller than the one swimming in the water. They landed about the same time, but I could not tell if they were traveling together or not. "is the smallest of the eight species of pelican, although it is a large bird in nearly every other regard. It is 106–137 cm (42–54 in) in length, weighs from 2.75 to 5.5 kg (6.1 to 12 lb) and has a wingspan from 1.83 to 2.5 m (6.0 to 8.2 ft).... After nesting, North American birds move in flocks further north along the coasts, returning to warmer waters for winter. Their young are hatched in broods of about 3, and eat around 150 lbs. of fish in the 8–10 month period they are cared for."-Wikepedia
These birds can go off shore more so than Seagulls and because they can hunt and rest on the water without a perch, they can go out to sea longer than the Pelicans.
"Pesticides like DDT and dieldrin threatened the Brown Pelican's future in the southeast United States and California in the early 1970s. Pesticides also threatened the pelican population in Florida in this period. A research group from the University of Tampa headed by Dr. Ralph Schreiber conducted research in the Tampa Bay/St Petersburg area and found that DDT caused the pelican eggshells to be too thin and incapable of supporting the embryo to maturity. As a result of this research, DDT usage was eliminated in Florida, followed by the rest of the US. Along with the American White Pelican, the Brown Pelican is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List has listed the Brown Pelican as Least Concern since 1988.[1] The US government imposed a ban on the use of DDT in 1972. Since then, the population of Brown Pelican has increased. Current estimates place the population at 650,000 individuals.[2] Millions of barrels of crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused by the explosion in April 2010 of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico may drift ashore and threaten the subspecies of the Brown Pelican that lives in Louisiana.[3]"-Wikipedia
Spotted on Jul 15, 2011
Submitted on Jul 18, 2011
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