EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Pelicans in the Bay

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), Family Pelecanidae
Bodega Bay, California

Explanation:  Sweeping by with slow majestic wing beats is this Brown Pelican, here in Bodega Bay, California.

This is a known, excellent birding location, especially for these large birds that are graceful on the wing and lumbering on the land.  

Brown Pelicans were listed as Endangered in 1970 under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, but later fully delisted in 2009.  The initial listing as Endangered was because of massive nest failures due to organochlorine pesticides that were in wide use at the time.  Later, DDT and other harmful compounds were banned for pesticide use, and the species was able to recover with nesting successes.  

Bodega Bay, California, is a viable habitat for
many thriving bird species, and numerous coves and points
for fine recreational birding.  

And birds and Bodega Bay go together, not just for the bay's habitat, but because the classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller movie The Birds was partially filmed there!  
  

        
Information:
     Briggs, K.T., W.B. Tyler, D.B. Lewis, P.R. Kelly, and D.A. Croll.  1983.  Brown pelicans in Central and Northern California.  Journal of Field Ornithology 54(4):353-373.