Brown pelican colonies flourish 



There's something about a pelican 

 that draws attention in North 

 Carolina. Maybe it's their comical 

 appearance — that curved neck, bald 

 head, long beak and drooping pouch. 

 Or maybe it's because we're not ac- 

 customed to seeing the birds, whose 

 populations have never been strong in 

 this state. Well, until now that is. 



In the early 1970s, birdwatchers, or- 

 nithologists and federal officials were 

 worried that our feathered friend 

 might not survive the perils of modern 

 society. The pesticide DDT caused 

 pelicans to lay eggs with thin shells 

 that frequently resulted in the death of 

 its contents. In response to its 

 problems and dwindling populations, 

 the eastern brown pelican was placed 

 on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 

 Endangered Species list in 1973. 



The pelican's nesting sites were 

 protected from North Carolina to 

 Florida. And to help matters, DDT 

 was banned in 1972. The pelicans 

 began to slowly recover. 



In his 1977 survey of nesting 

 colonial waterbirds, James Parnell 

 found 100 pairs of nesting brown 

 pelicans in North Carolina's estuaries. 

 In his 1983 survey, approximately 

 1,300 pairs were located. "We don't 

 claim all these are new birds," Parnell 

 says. "Some may have relocated from 

 a South Carolina site that washed 

 away." 



In his book, Atlas of Colonial 

 Waterbirds of North Carolina 

 Estuaries, (available for $7 from 

 UNC Sea Grant), Parnell says that 

 brown pelicans have been nesting in 

 North Carolina since 1929. For over 25 

 years, the only known colony of 

 pelicans nested on small islands near 

 Ocracoke. 



But in 1978, a new colony was es- 

 tablished on two neighboring dredge- 

 spoil islands, Old Royal Tern Island 

 and Ferry Slip Island, in the Cape 

 Fear River. Along with the terns, 

 laughing gulls, oyster catchers and 

 black skimmers, the pelicans nested on 

 the islands in the spring and summer. 

 In just a few years, the Cape Fear site 

 became the largest nesting colony of 

 pelicans in the state. 



But in 1982, erosion threatened the 

 pelican's Cape Fear nesting haven. 

 Parnell and others were worried that 

 the nests would wash away during 



Fluffy, young brown pelicans 



spring and summer storms. And to 

 make matters worse, there were no 

 other islands in the area suitable for 

 the pelicans to move to. 



The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 

 recognized the need to save the 

 pelicans' nesting site. They appealed 

 to the N.C. Office of Coastal Manage- 

 ment to bend their water quality stan- 

 dards so that the island could be 

 rebuilt. The state agreed that the 

 pelicans were a case worthy of a little 

 rule-bending. 



Early last year the corps dumped 

 30,000 cubic yards of dredge material 

 on Old Royal Tern Island, enlarging it 

 from 1.5 acres to 4 acres and raising its 

 elevation from 1 foot above average 

 high tide to 6 feet. The corps will take 

 similar action with Ferry Slip Island in 

 a few years. 



While federal and state agencies 

 worked to save the Cape Fear pelican 

 colony, the birds were busy es- 

 tablishing another colony on an island 

 near Atlantic. And last summer, a few 

 nests were found on an island near 

 Oregon Inlet. 



All of this surge in population has 

 led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 to propose removing the brown pelican 



from its endangered list along the East 

 Coast. "We have very good informa- 

 tion that the populations of pelicans 

 never really declined in Florida," says 

 Judy Jacobs, a Fish and Wildlife 

 endangered-species biologist. "The 

 populations in South Carolina that 

 were affected by DDT are back up to 

 historical levels. And in North 

 Carolina, populations are higher than 

 ever before." 



But Parnell is concerned about the 

 possibility of removing the pelicans 

 from the endangered list. "We know 

 the birds are doing well now," Parnell 

 says, "But we don't know why. I'd like 

 to know why the birds are doing so 

 well before we remove them from the 

 endangered list because when that 

 happens they lose a lot of support in 

 the law." 



The Fish and Wildlife Service will 

 issue a final report on the status of the 

 brown pelican this November. If the 

 pelican is removed from the en- 

 dangered list, it will become a "species 

 of management concern," Jacobs says. 

 This designation means the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service will continue to allot 

 funds and time to their management. 



— Kathy Hart 



