Date: 4/20/24 7:50 am From: Peter Pyle via groups.io <ppyle...> Subject: Re: [Mendobirds] Early juvenile brown pelicans and a few other sightings
Greetings all -
The brown-headed birds in Jeanne's photo are about a year of age rather
than juveniles. These stay brown-headed through at least their second
fall. You can tell by the white feathers coming in on the head and the
worn plumage whereas juveniles are fresher and 'neater' overall and
entirely brown headed.
Soon if not already the 'second-cycle' birds will begin molt of
primaries whereas in juveniles these are not molted in the first summer
so this is a quick way of telling them apart in flight. This isn't the
best photo
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/463759601 but it shows two juveniles to the left followed by a second-cycle bird
and an adult in June.
I think it's a bit early for juveniles up here, perhaps first being
expected in late May. But it also relies a lot on how well they breed,
which varies a lot inter-annually, from zero or very low productivity in
many years to super productivity as we've seen during the past two
seasons. I like determining ratios each summer and they have been in the
20-40% juvenile territory during the past two summers whereas there are
many years with <5% or 0%. Last summer it was about 30% juveniles and
15% second-cycle birds. I haven't heard about this year yet, but with El
Nino in we would expect productivity to be lower than average and
perhaps a complete bust. That they are already flying north (and, yes,
I've seen these as well this week) may not be a great sign regarding
their nesting season this year.
Cheers, Peter
On 4/19/2024 4:01 PM, Lisa D. Walker, (Feather Forestwalker) via
groups.io wrote:
> Yesterday and today, I was seeing juveniles flying with adults, as
> well. All heading north, except ONE small group of four, who were
> heading south - Brown Pelicans, from Virgin Creek Beach.
>
> Lisa D Walker-Roseman
> Ft Bragg/Cleone
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