A recent trip to Santa Barbara Island revealed the island as it breathes a deep late-summer breath, and responds in whatever way it does to the impacts of another western gull and brown pelican nesting season. It is great to see the pelicans doing so well, but there are unquestionably significant (and largely unstudied) ecological impacts of both the physical and nutrient inputs that come with this level of disturbance. In turning over abandoned pelican nests I find lots of mice and an occasional island night lizard. An obvious question then is whether pelican nests create more habitat for these species, or simply offset the reduction of habitat in other areas?

Pelicans also have an affinity for nesting directly on shrubs, (as opposed to possibly next to them?) particularly coreopsis, and the impacts to this species is also unknown. This behavior creates disturbance, along with adding nutrients to the system, a process that would otherwise almost certainly increase available microsites for seed germination. Can’t imagine, though, how any resulting seedling could then possibly survive being sat on by a bird of that size -

The USFWS is currently conducting a 5-year review of brown pelican status in response to a petition for delisting, which is supported by the Pacific Seabird Group. It isn’t clear how management of Santa Barbara Island would change if pelicans were delisted. The opportunities for research on pelican-island ecology would almost certainly increase, though, which would be good both for pelicans and SBI.