A slight white flash, then nothing. Once more, nothing, then a circle of strange floating specs.
The enormous white and black-tipped wings of American white pelicans tilt as they glide gently on thermals, sending the birds high in the sky. Observers who have reported them as UFOs have been known to be confused by them.
Due of their sudden appearance along the Columbia River and the beaches of Washington and Oregon, they have also caused confusion for scientists and fishermen.
In the vicinity of The Dalles, on the Columbia River, Jeremy Thompson, a wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife at the time, first spotted a few lone pelicans in 2010.
According to Thompson, who is currently the department’s energy coordinator, those figures have only increased. We are unsure of the precise cause.
For the first time in fifty years, white pelicans nested in Washington in 1994, establishing a breeding colony on an island within McNary National Wildlife Refuge, upriver of The Dalles.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates about 5,000 breeding adult pelicans currently call the colony home as of 2024.
On an island in the Columbia River Estuary, pelicans established a secondary colony downriver in 2010.
Between the two colonies on the Columbia River, birds observed in the spring and summer are probably either older adults who choose not to nest in a particular year or 1- to 2-year-olds who are not yet able to reproduce.
Regarding the pelicans seen in the area of The Dalles, Thompson adds, “We’re kind of wedged right in between those two breeding colonies, which is probably what makes it attractive to those birds.”
However, the colony near the estuary of the Columbia River has been intermittent. In the past ten years, the birds have left it a few times, most likely because to disturbances from people or predators like coyotes or bald eagles.
Status of protection
Although pelicans have a long history in the western United States, they suffered in the late 19th century when hunters slaughtered them for sport and their marsh habitats were turned into farms and cities.
By 1932, there was just one of the 11 known breeding colonies in California, since 90% of their habitat had vanished.
DDT poisoned white pelicans, much like it did eagles and peregrine falcons. Their eggs grew fragile and were unable to sustain the babies.
Although the state of Washington identified them as endangered in 1981, they were not listed on the federal level under the Endangered Species Act.
Pelicans have experienced a spectacular resurgence in the West since the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1972, which protected them and prohibited DDT.
Both Oregon and Washington now classify them as sensitive species.
Where white pelicans can be seen
White pelicans usually nest inland in the spring and summer on solitary islands within freshwater lakes or rivers, ranging from the Great Salt Lake in Utah to the salty lakes of Klamath, Lake, and Harney counties in southern Oregon. This is in contrast to brown pelicans, which remain in coastal waters throughout the year.
White pelicans migrate southward to Mexico, southwestern Arizona, and central and southern California in the winter.
In late August, many of the recognizable white birds move through the Portland region. A little lake in North Portland was the resting place for perhaps 150 pelicans this year. Although they do not nest there, they have established a home at Sauvie Island’s Sturgeon Lake, where they can be spotted in the spring and summer months in the Portland region.
Additionally, a few of the birds have begun to spend the winter close to The Dalles, along the Columbia River.
At any time of year, drivers traveling Interstate 84 through Wasco County, Oregon, are sure to spot at least one white pelican floating on the river, near enough to view its long, neon-orange bill tucked in toward its chest.
According to Allison Anholt, lead biologist for shorebirds and colonial waterbirds at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, white pelicans have become a more frequent coastal visitor in the Pacific Northwest during mating season.
The majority of white pelican sightings along the coast have happened in the last four years, according to sightings recorded in the online bird observation database eBird. They have been seen in large numbers along the Oregon Coast’s Tillamook and Netarts Bays, as well as further north in Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay in Washington.
These days, flocks of ten to one hundred birds can be observed all over Puget Sound.
“They’re hanging out at the coast when they should be breeding,” explains Anholt.
According to Anholt, the birds may be moving further west toward more dependable salt water due to drought and water management. In certain years, when the pelicans’ favorite inland lakes dry up, land bridges are created, allowing coyotes and other predators to reach their eggs.
Some pelicans that have been seen along the coast in recent years may have been birds that left their eggs on the Great Salt Lake in 2023 when the colony collapsed due to low water levels, according to Anholt.
According to Anholt, pelicans seek fish and islands where they are protected from predators. Perhaps we have both of those things out at the coast.
Salmon and pelicans
Thompson questions whether the abundance of American shad, an anadromous fish endemic to the Atlantic coast that was brought to the Columbia in the late 1800s, has provided a meal for pelicans on the river.
Ten to twenty million shad may migrate up the Columbia River each year, according to estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Although pelicans mostly feed carp and suckers, they are opportunistic and will consume any nearby tiny fish, including endangered salmon or shad.
According to a 2022 Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife assessment, the two pelican colonies along the Columbia River don’t seem to have a major impact on juvenile salmon mortality. However, they might affect particular streams along the Columbia River’s tributaries.
The Yakama Nation is attempting to quantify the quantity of juvenile salmon and steelhead that pelicans ingest by observing their feeding habits in the Yakima River during the spring and early summer.
Over the next two years, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will carry out a population study of white pelicans as part of a broader census of pelicans along the Pacific Flyway, one of the four bird migration routes in North America.
It is hoped that biologists can gain a better understanding of whether or not the birds are breeding and the reasons behind their relocation to new coastal locations.
According to Anholt, there is still a question about what they are doing, and I am eager to try to find an explanation in the upcoming years.
Portland is the home of writer and musician Josephine Woolington. She contributes to publications such as High Country News by writing about Indigenous issues and the environment.
The nonprofit news website Columbia Insight, with its headquarters in Hood River, Oregon, focuses on environmental concerns in the Pacific Northwest and the Columbia River Basin.
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