Recently, the station on Anderson Mesa detected individual birds representing two species: a Flammulated Owl and an American White Pelican. The station at Rancho Tres Brisas detected a Northern Shoveler. What makes these detections so meaningful is that our data regarding these individual birds are combined with the data from other stations to provide important information on the bird’s travels. The American White Pelican, for example, was tagged in July 2024 at the nesting colony on Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake of Utah and detected by the Anderson Mesa station in late May 2025. Between those dates, this individual was detected by more than a dozen sites, including one on the west coast of Mexico about 640 miles south of Anderson Mesa. The migratory paths of these birds will inform research and conservation efforts.
Here are a few facts about them and their journeys:
American White Pelican # 57645 was tagged by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) for the American White Pelican Tracking Project on 7/17/2024 and detected by our Anderson Mesa IBA Motus station on April 28, 2025. It flew to us after pinging a station located on the Reserva Ecologica Bahia de Santa Maria; a station that is part of the Coastal Motus Network in Northwest Mexico. The flight from Bahia de Santa Maria to Anderson Mesa was part of its 1171 km flight past or to 16 Motus stations. Here is more info on the project description:
Project description
The American White Pelican nesting colony on Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake of Utah is regularly one of the largest colonies in the Pacific Flyway. Drought and low lake levels have exposed a land bridge between the island and the mainland. This has posed conservation concerns for the colony. We have been monitoring productivity, and dispersal from the colony using bands and visual markers for resight. This project represents the first opportunity to place transmitter tags on juvenile birds.
American White Pelican Project by UDWR
Flammulated Owl #58928 was tagged on September 4, 2024 at Spike Came - Mt tagging site near Missoula. The small owl “scarcely larger than a small juice can” was detected by our Anderson Mesa IBA station on May 4th of 2025. Since that time, there have been no other detections of this owl. It came toward Anderson Mesa from Curlew National Grasslands flying 785 miles.
More info:
It spends its time foraging for insects near the tops of massive pine or fir trees. These aspects make it hard to spot, although its repetitive, low-pitched hoot is easier to notice. Once thought to be rare residents of mountainous pine forests, Flammulated Owls can be common in forests of large trees and are highly migratory. It winters in Mexico and Central America, but little else is known about the species in its wintering areas. (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Flammulated_Owl/overview)
Northern Shoveler #57925 was tagged on July 26, 2024. It has been past or visited 12 Motus stations; including stations near the Great Salt Lake, the Salton Sea, and coastal preserves in North West Mexico. So far, it has visited 12 stations! The furthest southern station was: Bahia Ohuira. On Friday, May 2nd it left Buenos Aires NWR flying toward our stations and was detected on May 3rd after having flown 321 miles at 15 km/hr.