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Episode 1608

Last broadcast Thursday September 28, 2006

Pelicans

The American White Pelican is a very large white bird with black wing tips and a long, wide orange bill. They are graceful in flight, moving their wings in slow powerful strokes. Unlike the Brown Pelican, the American White Pelican does not dive for its food. Instead it practices cooperative fishing. Each bird eats more than 4 pounds of fish a day, mostly carp, chubs, shiners, yellow perch, catfish, and jackfish.White Pelicans nest in colonies of several hundred pairs on islands in remote brackish and freshwater lakes of inland North America. The female lays 2 or 3 eggs in a shallow depression on the ground. Both parents incubate. They winter in central California and along the Pacific coast of Guatemala; also along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Shooting by poachers is the largest known cause of mortality, although the species is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

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Ghost Nets

Gill nets are a series of panels of meshes with a weighted "foot rope" along the bottom, and a "headline", to which floats are attached. Commercial gillnet fisheries are still a common method of harvesting salmon in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Abandoned nets are among the major types of debris collecting in areas of the ocean in growing amounts. Such debris threatens the lives of sea birds and marine life.

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Bats

Join us underground and learn a lot more about the Townsend's Big Eared Bat. A medium-sized bat with extremely long ears and a small glandular outgrowth on each side of the snout. Upperparts near clove-brown on back, wood-brown on sides, underparts slightly paler; membrane between hind legs full, wide and hairless. The combination of large flexible ears, nearly uniform color, and the lumps on the snout identify this bat. These bats emerge late in the evening to forage and are swift, highly maneuverable fliers. Prey items include small moths, flies, lacewings, dung beetles, and sawflies.

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