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Pelicans’ northerly nesting grounds shrinking

FILE - This June 9, 2011 file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows American white pelicans nesting at the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Medina, N.D. Rising lake levels are swallowing the pelicans’ nesting grounds at the guano-rich island in central North Dakota known as North America's largest refuge for the big-billed birds, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service said. About 30,000 pelicans have returned to Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 2014 to nest on the island that also serves as a rookery. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, File)
FILE - This June 9, 2011 file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows American white pelicans nesting at the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Medina, N.D. Rising lake levels are swallowing the pelicans’ nesting grounds at the guano-rich island in central North Dakota known as North America's largest refuge for the big-billed birds, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service said. About 30,000 pelicans have returned to Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 2014 to nest on the island that also serves as a rookery. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, File) FILE - This June 9, 2011 file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows American white pelicans nesting at the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Medina, N.D. Rising lake levels are swallowing the pelicans’ nesting grounds at the guano-rich island in central North Dakota known as North America's largest refuge for the big-billed birds, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service said. About 30,000 pelicans have returned to Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 2014 to nest on the island that also serves as a rookery. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, File)

By Associated Press 3 min read

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Rising lake levels are swallowing American white pelicans’ nesting grounds at a guano-rich island in central North Dakota known as North America’s largest refuge for the big-billed birds, federal wildlife officials said.

About 30,000 pelicans returned to 4,385-acre Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge this year to find water had gobbled several acres of their main nesting island, creating increasingly cramped conditions for the giant birds, among the largest in North America. They weigh up to 20 pounds, have a wingspan of nearly 10 feet and measure six feet from bill to tail.

The decreased elbow room does not appear to have affected nesting activity so far, and the island continues to be filled with the grunts and squawks of thousands of white pelicans and their chicks, said Neil Shook, a U.S Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and refuge manager.

The first chicks hatch around mid-May, a month after their parents fly in from Gulf Coast states and as far away as Florida and California. The pelicans normally stay through September, feasting on fish and salamanders from small ponds within a 100-mile radius of the refuge.

Shook said the island has been shrinking by a couple of acres annually since the early 1990s but appears to have mysteriously decreased from 24 acres last year to about 15 acres this year, a loss in land mass equal to about nine football fields. The decrease of island real estate comes despite relatively average rain and snowfall – and it has even shrunk in dry years, he said. It’s not clear why it’s happening.