Associated Press

The manager of the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge says the pelican colony at the refuge lost a majority of its young this year because of cold, wet weather.

Natoma Buskness says she has no exact count of the number of chicks that died, but she says the colony was "hard hit."Buskness says the chicks are born with little protective covering.

Buskness says the first pelican chicks hatched this year around May 19. She says an aerial survey in late May showed more than 23,000 pelicans nesting at the refuge, and the big white birds are still there.