City - Moss Landing State - CA Country - United States
About
Brown Pelican with its breeding plumage. The breeding grounds of these pelicans are located in San Diego- La Jolla, Channel Islands and Baja California, however there are so many adults in the Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing Harbor that may be an indication that this location currently represents their Northern most breeding colony. I don’t have scientific information to support my observation, this is just speculation.
Their breeding range, historically, was from coastal central Mexico up to Point Lobos in Monterey until about the 1950's (Thelander, 1994).Currently, their known nesting colonies are on the Anacapa Island, Santa Barbara Island and nearby Sutil Rock, Scorpion Rock near Santa Cruz Island which are all a part of the Channel Islands located off southern California's coast. In the 1980’s the Channel Islands hosted 6,000 breeding pairs (Thelander, 1994). Colonies are found on Los Coronados Islands, which are near the United States and Mexico border. (Garrett & Dunn, 1981’ Beacham, 2001). The majority of the nesting pairs are found down south on islands off the Pacific coast of Baja, Mexico, and in the Gulf of California (Thelander, 1994). Their nest habitat is almost always on a coastal island around six feet above high tide level (Beacham, 2001). According to Beacham (2001) a current estimate of California brown pelicans shows a total breeding population of about 48,500 pairs. This breaks down to about 3,000 pairs in southern California (6%), 33,000 pairs in the Gulf of California (68%), 7,500 on islands off of mainland Mexico (15%), and 5,000 in southwest Baja California (10%). After nesting season is over the California brown pelican will usually follow the food supply north up the coast to Canada and British Colombia, its historical dispersal range. This dispersal is responsible for the influx of the Mexican breeding population to the California coast in the months of May through October (Thelander, 1994).
0 
