Bismarck Tribune

By RICHARD HINTBy RICHARD HINTON

Coordinates from transmitters fitted on eight adult American white pelicans that dispersed from Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge showed several of the big white birds were hanging out near the refuge, while other birds were transmitting from nearby states.

Two of the Chase Lake pelicans are in South Dakota, one is in Minnesota and another is in Iowa, Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Monday.

And one transmitter-fitted white pelican from the Medicine Lake colony in northeastern Montana has dropped in at Pipestem Reservoir near Jamestown.

Samples from another 10 young pelicans were sent off for testing to a Madison, Wis., laboratory last week, Torkelson said.

"They are leaning toward West Nile because of the symptoms and the timing," Torkelson said. Birds stricken with the West Nile virus often stumble around and lose their balance.

Researchers visited the nesting islands late last week.

The colony also saw its first juvenile pelican fledge, the researchers noted.

For two consecutive summer nesting seasons, the Chase Lake colony has been hit with mysteries.

Earlier this year, a massive chick die-off prompted most of the adult pelicans to leave their traditional nesting sites, once believed to hold the largest pelican colony in North America.

Testing to determine the cause of those deaths continues in the Madison laboratory. From a potential chick population of 9,000, the colony now is holding fewer than 300 young pelicans.