New season, new people

Hello!
I am Rochelle Streker and I am a Master's student studying the effects of nesting microclimate and diet on the reproductive success of Brown Pelicans in Mobile, Alabama. My main study site is on Gaillard Island, a large dredge-spill island in the middle of Mobile Bay, that was built in 1982 by the Army Corps of Engineers. The dredge from the Theodore Industrial Canal is pumped onto the island every 2 years when the birds are not nesting, leaving behind a soft sand reinforced with rocks to stop the island from washing away. The Brown Pelicans nest on the ground and in the shrubs that grow on the island, sharing the island with Laughing Gulls, Royal terns, Least terns,  and multiple species of herons.

Our study is focused on the relationship between nest microhabitat features and reproductive success of Brown Pelican on Gaillard. This is a little different from previous field jobs I have had which were mainly focused on censusing and counting numbers of birds and chicks in a particular area. For this project, we are measuring nest height, vegetation cover, vegetation type, distance from the water, and elevation of approximately 50 nests and following them throughout the hatching and fledging of the chicks.

We arrived in Mobile at the beginning of April ready to start the season, but the weather and boat troubles left us without a way of getting out to Gaillard Island. Luckily, we found ourselves some very generous volunteers at the local Buccaneer Yacht Club who were able to get us to the island and help us find a local mechanic to fix our boat. The Buccaneer Yacht Club has been incredibly helpful to our project so far, and continues to be a great friend and ally here in Mobile.

​When choosing our study nests from amongst the hundreds of nests on the island, we were happy to find lots of them with 2 or 3 eggs. As Brown Pelican normally only lay 3 eggs, we assumed that these eggs were all approximately the same age. Since then, some eggs have failed, some have hatched into chicks, and others are still waiting for their time to hatch (and we are waiting with them!). The amount of chicks seems to be increasing steadily every day, not only in our plots but throughout the whole island, so that’s good news for them and us! We have measured height and vegetation cover twice since the start of the field season since these are likely to change throughout the summer. We also have 20 dataloggers in nests on Gaillard, recording the temperature inside the nest every hour to see what the relationship between temperature inside the nest and survival of the eggs and chicks are. I’m excited for the season to continue and for chicks to keep hatching! I’ll be sure to update you as the season continues!

Rochelle