Another great pelican count

RESULTS are in and, on a sunny Sunday in April, around 100 humans recorded 1135 pelicans in 30 minutes for the annual BirdLife Australia Gippsland Lakes Great Pelican Count.

Citizen scientists gathered at 77 locations to raise their binoculars for the environment recording 476 more pelicans than in 2021 and 500 more than the previous count held in 2019.

Of this total, 75 percent of pelicans were roosting, 10 percent were moving and 15 percent were noted to be foraging or scavenging for food.

BirdLife Australia Project Coordinator, Deb Sullivan said: “We are delighted with the 2022 participation and results. Recent wet weather has meant that there has been more fish to be had and have provided great feeding and breeding conditions for the pelicans.

“It’s an important 30 minutes of the year as the results provide a ‘pelican snapshot’ and contributes to the larger, ongoing pelican monitoring and protection program across the Lakes.

“There were people of all ages counting on the day including staff from East Gippsland and West Gippsland Catchment Management Authorities. Also, for the first time this year, residents of Mallacoota participated in the count and I thank everyone for their enthusiasm.”

Across the year, Deb and her team place bands on the pelicans to track their movements and activity with 37 young birds being tagged so far this year. The team is also able to track the birds in real time with satellite trackers and the team are planning to deploy ten more tracking devices onto adults and juveniles in the near future. The devices emit a signal every ten minutes.

Although the count is over, you can be a pelican citizen scientist all year round by recording any pelicans with coloured leg bands you see noting the date, time, location of your sighting and note if the pelicans were alone or how many other birds they were with – a photo from your phone is also perfect.

Submit any sightings to greatpelicancount@birdlife.org.au or on the ‘Love Our Pelicans’ Facebook page set up to follow project research, share stories, photos, and report sightings of banded pelicans.

The Gippsland Lakes Great Pelican Count is an initiative of BirdLife Australia supported by East and West Gippsland Catchment Management Authorities.