Ecotour Expedition Finds Pelican from Louisiana at Manialtepec
While leading a Hidden Voyages Ecotour on Manialtepec Lagoon (see "Ecotourists" image) and enjoying the Brown Pelicans I noted one of the birds was sporting a bright yellow leg band. I recorded the band number and reported the sighting to the US Fish & Wildlife Service bird banding office in Washington DC. They responded with the following letter:
Michael Malone
sales@peleewings.ca
Dear Mr. Malone
We have received your report of a banded brown pelican from the banding lab. Thank you for reporting this sighting, and for your offer of photographs of the bird. A little history on this bird for your information. It was banded in 2001 as a pre-fledgling bird at the Chandeleur Islands off the east coast of the state of Louisiana, United States. Your sighting is extremely valuable in building a database of pelican movements from this colony. It is one of several birds that have been reported from the area of Mexico and Central America, but it represents the first sighting of a bird on the Pacific coast. Until your sighting it was not known whether birds banded on the Atlantic or Gulf coasts ever made it to the Pacific coast. Your information adds a new dimension into the interaction and movements of brown pelicans. Again thank you for your report.
James O. Harris
Wildlife Biologist
Southeast Louisiana Refuges
Slidell, LA 70458
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Ecotour Expedition on Laguna Manialtepec
Brown Pelican with yellow band
Brown Pelicans at Manialtepec
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