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American White Pelican     Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Gmelin
Last updated: 2005 03 31
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This spreadsheet includes the majority of observations received for the past two months, plus a selection of other reports from earlier dates.
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Click on a hyperlinked observer/source to view the citation for that record.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Date State/ Province Location Number of Birds Observers/Source Notes, Including Age of Birds if Determined, Direction of Flight, Behaviour Time
             
06-Sep-2004 BC Powell Lake 1 Fiona Southworth et al.    
Summer 2004 BC Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area 100+ (Van Damme 2004)    
01-Jul-2004 BC Prince George Area: Eaglet lake 4 Cathy Antoniazzi    
17-May-2004 BC Mt. Robson Provincial Park 27 Rick Zammuto et al. Rose from Moose Lake, headed down the Fraser river over Tete Jaune Cache, then towards McBride.  
14-Apr-2004 BC N end Osoyoos Lake 2-3 Michael G. Shepard Resting on gravel bar  
Summer 2003 BC Leach Lake Unit, Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area 200+ (Van Damme 2004)    
October 2002 BC Chilcotin 1 (Ranson 2002) "Rescued from a Chilcotin lake on the 11/12th."  
08-Jun-2002 BC Charlie Lake 27 Guy Pickavance    
06-Sep-2001 BC Near the mouth of Quilchena Creek, Nicola Lake 21 Wayne Weber    
25-Aug-2001 BC Vaseux Lake 10 Chris Charlesworth, Ryan Tomlinson Loafing on sandbar at the north end of the lake.  
18-Jun-2001 BC Osoyoos Lake 9 Ken Mugridge Flying south.  
03-Jun-2001 BC Stuart Lake 27 Randy Rawluk Off Colony Point Road.  
27 to 29 Jun 2001 BC Iona Bay 15 (Cowan 2001b)    
(Cowan 2001c)
27-May-2001 BC Maillardville 2 (Cowan 2001b)    
24-May-2001 BC Vancouver 2 (Cowan 2001a) Over Nelson and Bidwell Streets.  
8 to 22 Apr 2000 BC Williams Lake see notes Phil Ranson First observation for the spring was on April 8 when six appeared  at east end of lake.  Flocks were present on and off until at least April 22, reaching a peak of 50-55 birds April 15.  
16-Apr-2000 BC Penticton 35 Susan Scott    
13-Apr-2000 BC Guichon Flats, Nicola Valley 35 Wayne Weber    
In the spring of 1999, American White Pelicans were more widely reported than usual, both on the coast and in the interior.  Anna Roberts surmised that late thawing of pelican feeding lakes near their Stum Lake colony may have resulted in the influx to lower elevations.  At Williams Lake, where the species was previously unrecorded in spring, small flocks came daily (April 22 to the end of May) to forage.   A similar pattern was noted in 2000.  Once they found good fishing here they continued to come long after their usual feeding lakes were open.  Most surprising was the mid-June presence of flocks of up to 25 pelicans throughout the Okanagan and west to Tranquille.
16-Sep-1999 BC Campbell River 1 Casey Cramer fide Vicki Hansen Immature  
13-Sep-1999 BC Iona Island 1 Brian Scott A juvenile circling over the Iona ponds just before noon. It departed towards the south.  
29 May to 12 Sep 1999 BC Roberts Bank Jetty 1 Brent Diakow, Wayne Diakow et al.    
14-Jul-1999 BC Delta 1 Barbara Lowstrum Flying offshore from128th & 16th Ave  
4 to 8 Jul 1999 BC Campbell River area 2 fide Vicki Hansen On July 4-7, two birds were along Discovery Passage foreshore at the mouth of the Campbell River (Keith Hudson et al.).  What were almost certainly the same two birds were at Oyster Bay Shoreline Park on July 8 (Betty Brooks, Allan Brooks, Jamie Fenneman).  
30 May to 4 Jul 1999 BC Tranquille see notes BC Interior Birds (newsgroup) May 30 - 11 birds (Ralph Ritcey)
July 4 - 7 birds (Syd Roberts)		  
19 Jun to 1 Jul 1999 BC Lower Mainland Shoreline 2 Vancouver RBA Two birds were at Iona Island on June 19 (Alen Jensen, Daniel Bastaja).  Subsequently, two birds (the same ones?) were at Port Moody, June 21 - July 1 (Hilary Maguire et al.).    
18-Jun-1999 BC Swan Lake, Vernon 25 fide Mary Collins    
17-Jun-1999 BC Vaseux Lake 24 Peter Axhorn    
14 to 17 Jun 1999 BC Salmon Arm see notes Kayla Feldman fide Richard Cannings Mouth of Salmon River.  17 present June 14, 1 still there June 17.  
26-May-1999 BC Iona Island 1 Rick Toochin, Mark Wynja, Kevin MacPherson, Wayne Mather    
09-Apr-1999 BC Okanagan Lake 26 Elke Fischer Flying north from Rattlesnake Island near Summerland to Kelowna and beyond.  
26-Sep-1998 BC Creston Valley 56 Burke Korol et al.    
23-Sep-1998 BC Mamette Lake 20 Katharine Shewchuk Circling overhead.  
22-Sep-1998 BC Langley 1 Jeff Starchuck    
23-Jul-1998 BC Langley 1 Dale North    
16-May-1998 BC Boundary Bay 2 Mike Street, Jo Ann MacKenzie, Hue MacKenzie    
27-May-1986 BC Willow Point 1 (Campbell et al. 1990)    
16-Jun-1983 BC Burton 120 (Rogers 1983)    
30-May-1983 BC Duck Lake, Creston 33 (Campbell et al. 1990)    
26-Jun-1982 BC Kotcho Lake 1 (Campbell et al. 1990)    
25 Jul to 16 Aug 1981 BC Eddontenajon Lake 1 (Campbell et al. 1990)    
11-May-1980 BC Junction Peace and Pine Rivers 1 (Campbell et al. 1990)    
23-May-1961 BC Pitt Meadows 5 (Campbell 1970)    
10-Oct-1958 BC Victoria 15 (Campbell et al. 1990)    
23-Apr-1946 BC Stump Lake (Quilchena) 63+ (Campbell et al. 1990)    
17-Jun-1930 BC Deep Bay 5 (Laing 1932)    
07-May-1926 BC Kamloops 200 (Racey 1933)    
10-Oct-1912 BC Port Essington 1 (Campbell et al. 1990)    
             
Citations
Anonymous. 2004. A sighting of an American White Pelican on Powell Lake is the first in recorded history. The Powell River Peak, September 14, 2004.
Antoniazzi, Cathy. 2004. Pelicans. Communication posted to NCENBIRD newsgroup on July 2, 2004.
Campbell, R. Wayne. 1970.  The White Pelican in southwestern British Columbia.  Murrelet 51:18-19.
Campbell, R. W., N. K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, J. M. Cooper, G. W. Kaiser, M. C. E. McNall. 1990.  The birds of British Columbia - volume 1: nonpasserines - introduction, loons through waterfowl. Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, and Canadian Wildlife Service, Delta. 514pp.
Charlesworth, Chris. 2001.  Okanagan Valley (BC) Rare Bird Alert - August 25th update.  Communication posted to BIRDWEST on August 25, 2001.
Cowan, Larry. 2001a.  RBA Vancouver, BC May 24/01.   Communication posted to BCVANBIRDS newsgroup on January 21, 2001.
Cowan, Larry. 2001b.  RBA Vancouver, BC May 27/01.   Communication posted to BCVANBIRDS newsgroup on January 21, 2001.
Cowan, Larry. 2001c.  RBA Vancouver, BC May 29/01.   Communication posted to BCVANBIRDS newsgroup on January 21, 2001.
Force, Michael. 2004. OK Valley Bird Alert 16 April. Communication posted to BCINTBIRD newsgroup on April 16, 2004.
Laing, H.M. 1932.  White Pelican on Vancouver Island.  Canadian Field-Naturalist 46:190.
Mugridge, Ken. 2001.  White Pelicans.  Communication posted to Tweeters newsgroup on June 20, 2001.
Pickavance, Guy. 2002.  Sightings.  E-mail communication received June 22, 2002.
Racey, K. 1970.  White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchus) in British Columbia.  Auk 50:205.
Ranson, Phil. 2002.  Cariboo Sightings.  Communication posted to BCINTBIRD newsgroup on October 13, 2002.
Rawluk, Randy. 2001.  American White Pelicans.  Communication posted to NCENBIRD newsgroup on June 6, 2001.
Rogers, T.H. 1983.  The nesting season - northern Rocky Mountain - Intermountain region.  American Birds 37:1007-1009.
Shepard, Michael G. 1998. British Columbia - Yukon Region.  Field Notes, 52(4): 493-494.
Van Damme, Linda. 2004. Creston Valley birds. Communication posted to WKBIRDS newsgroup on July 2, 2004.
Zammuto, Rick. 2004.  27 Pelicans at MooseLake.  Communication posted to NCENBIRD newsgroup on May 18, 2004.
Additional References:
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