Adult pelicans started leaving the rookery before our boats landed. We banded pelicans on Lac Qui Parle in western Minnesota.

There were a few other species of birds on the island like this male red-winged blackbird. I also heard common yellowthroats and song sparrows on the island as well.

On gull island the adults were much more tolerant of us and allowed us to approach very closely. I used a technique of keeping myself low to the ground that I use with the ed birds at The Raptor Center to look less threatening to the pelicans.

A streaker? No, a young pelican without down or feathers trying to avoid the big scary humans. Young birds like this that are just becoming mobile will join up with others of the same age group forming a pod. Small pods eventually grow into larger ones as the birds grow older. In a pod, the goal is to stay towards the center where predators are less likely to get ahold of you.

Long sleeves and pants were a must in order to get at young pelicans hiding in stinging nettle. Most people in our banding group would form a circle around a pod of young pelicans and reach in and band the birds. I perferred going for birds hidden in the nettle because the foliage kept them from thrashing too much.

Some birds put up a fight by attempting to bite us when we grabbed them, but most just vomited. They don't really pack the punch that a parrot or turkey vulture does since their bills aren't hooked. This one did leave a minor scratch on my cheek (easily hidden with a little make up)

This bird was too young to band, but there were several all over the island so you really had to watch were you were going.

This one just reminded me of an old man who just came off a weekend bender.

More pelicans hiding in stinging nettle.

This year there seemed to be more nests with two eggs and both birds hatching. This nest has two birds and an egg. I suspect the oldest bird was actually from a neighboring nest.

A small pod forming is forming. Chances are that the younger chicks will get picked on by the older birds and not survive.

I'm not sure these are are from the same parents either. Freshly hatched pelicans like the little guy on the right are at risk of being trampled by large pods of older pelicans.

Life and death is a constant reminder in a pelican rookery. Pelicans nest on the ground and use sticks or anything else available like bones from dead pelicans or this pelican mandible.

Okay, this guy looks dead, but he was in the process of hatching. Kinda reminds you of a dinosaur.

Much to Non Birding Bill's horror I set my iPod next to the hatching pelican for size comparison (since this bird was just hatching I figured it hadn't eaten yet and was safe from being vomited on).

After banding 2000 pelicans, we headed off to band 500 ring-billed gull chicks.

The gulls flew off into a swarm when we arrived, the sound was deafening and the adults not only dove at our heads, they also defecated on us.

I digi-scoped some of the gulls with my Vortex binoculars.

We looked for older chicks like this one for banding. Most were hidden in low vegetation and you must be careful to watch were you walk. Once you grab them the either vomit or poop on you (or both!).

This is a freshly hatched ring-billed gull chick next to an unhatched egg. These birds are too young to band but are very cute--and smaller than my iPod.

Great egrets were also nesting on the island as well. We didn't have any bands for their chicks. We also saw great-blue herons and black-crowned night herons fly over. I'm not sure which island they were nesting on.

This tall tree had several great egret nests. Note the pelicans flying around it. Some of the pelicans that had been in the lake flew over me so slow low, I felt water dripping on me.

I digi scoped some of the great egrets in the tree. Now you can see some of the thousands of gulls in the air.

A few of the egret nests were low enough that you could see the chicks. This nest had three chicks and look close--their skin is green, I had no idea great egret chicks had green skin.