Volunteers Needed

Since 2013, a team of seabird scientists has been studying the movements of adults and juvenile Brown pelicans living in the northern Gulf of Mexico. They are currently tracking adults with GPS technology but also marked young pelicans with color bands. Colored plastic bands are very useful for obtaining information about migrations of juveniles after they leave the nests where they are born. During the summer of 2014, 300 young pelicans were marked with green plastic bands on the Texas coast (in Galveston, Matagorda and Corpus Christi Bays). In Port O’Connor, they worked with Tim Wilkinson, warden of Chester-Sundown Island.

The scientists rely on volunteers to know more about the whereabouts of young pelicans. Currently, local observers in our area are being sought who can report their sightings of birds wearing plastic bands.

The website, projectpelican.weebly.com explains more about this project. The public can also interact with the twitter feed @project_pelican.

Yvan Satge, South Carolina Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, Clemson, SC