PELIcam brings public closer to lonely Great Salt Lake island and its birds
Luke Leclair-Marzolf, left, and John Luft scout out locations for the "PELIcam" on Gunnison Island in the north arm of the Great Salt Lake on Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2017. Scientist from a network of research and conservation organizations went to the island to install a camera that will provide a live feed of the bay below Luft and Leclair-Marzolf where thousands of pelicans gather every summer.
Alex Jacques, left, and Luke Leclair-Marzolf install the "PELIcam" to look out over Gunnison Island on Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2017.
Scientists pull their boat onto the salt-encrusted shore of Gunnison Island in the north arm of the Great Salt Lake on Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2017. The harsh and isolated island is home to thousand of pelicans who nest on Gunnison thanks to the lack for predators. However, as the lake level is dropping, coyotes have been able to walk out from the mainland.
Scientists walk along the salt and mineral encrusted beaches of Gunnison Island in the north arm of the Great Salt Lake on Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2017. The isolated north arm of the lake is so salty that the water has reached concentration and salt builds up on every nearby surface. The only thing that can survive in the water is a bacteria which gives the water a reddish color.
Luke Leclair-Marzolf, left, and Jaimi Butler document a bird tag found on the beach on Gunnison Island on Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2017. Scientists gridded the beaches where the pelicans usually live and found dozens of tags and bands. With the tags, researchers can find out where the birds were originally captured and tagged. This helps them learn more about pelican lives and migration patterns.
A skeleton of a pelican is partially buried on the beach of Gunnison Island on Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2017. The environment on the island is extremely harsh. There is no fresh water on the island, the surrounding water is too salty to support any life beyond bacteria, and extreme temperatures and heavy winds are common.
Jaimi Butler smiles after finding a band from a pelican on Gunnison Island on Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2017. For most of the year, the island is a gathering place for thousands of American white pelicans who migrate around North America. When the birds leave, scientists search the area for tags and ankle bands from birds that have died on the island over the past year.
Bird and Great Basin enthusiasts now have a chance to peek at one of the most remote places in the region. All they need is an internet connection.
Biologists, students and educators spent a long day Tuesday — and a long boat ride — installing a “PELIcam” on Gunnison Island, an isolated and important bird nesting site for American white pelicans. The camera is now streaming images all day and night, just in time for the birds to swoop in and begin building their nests.
The goal behind the PELIcam project is to pique public interest in the birds and tap citizens for a crowd-sourced science project.
“Not very many people know we have American white pelicans that live in the middle of this salty lake,” said Jaimi Butler with Westminster College’s Great Salt Lake Institute. “Everyone knows what a pelican is, everyone can identify a pelican — they’re interesting, big cool birds. So why not, while we’re learning more about them, have people help us?”
RELATED: As Great Salt Lake shrinks, fate of nesting pelicans unknown
Gunnison Island lies in the North Arm of the Great Salt Lake. Breeding pelicans select the site for its isolation, but it comes at a cost. The adult birds fly daily to Bear River Bay, Farmington Bay or beyond to catch fish to feed their young. The baby birds have no way to access food or fresh water on their own. Only around one in four of the chicks survive into adulthood and leave the island.
Biologists with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources take advantage of adult pelicans’ daily food-finding trips to conduct annual tagging of the juvenile birds too young to fly away. Since 2010, the scientists have made an annual trip to the island, placing metal bands around juvenile Gunnison Island pelicans’ legs and punching green tags in their wings.
Birdwatchers can easily spot the tags and report sightings back to state biologists.
“This is a relatively cheap version of tracking them, but you’ve got to get people to report them,” said John Luft with the Utah DWR Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program. “I think that’s the biggest thing we’re trying to do with this project — get people interested … let us know where you see these birds an if you can read the tag numbers.”
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BENJAMIN ZACK/Standard-Examiner
American white pelicans circle over Gunnison Island on Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2017. The birds usually start to show up in mid-March. Pelicans take advantage of the seclusion of the island to raise their young. They will travel dozens of miles a day to reach areas where they can fish.
The PELIcam will aid tagged bird sightings and provide a glimpse of the pelicans’ daily routine on the island.
“We’re hoping to learn more about the pelicans — like timing, reproduction, things we can’t really know because we can’t be out here on this remote island all the time,” Butler said.
The division’s Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program also placed another 14 motion-triggered cameras throughout the island to get a sense of the birds’ movements as well as the arrival of invaders, like coyotes and humans.
Gunnison Island’s location and lack of fresh water has largely protected the nesting birds. But dropping water elevation in the Great Salt Lake has created a land bridge allowing hungry predators and curious people to intrude.
Did you know?
The Great Salt Lake would be around 11 feet higher if not for human water use. The Standard-Examiner spent a year investigating the environmental and economic impacts of the declining lake levels in the project “Losing the Great Salt Lake.”
“If disturbance increases to a certain level, we risk the population not coming back and finding other roosting areas,” said David Kimberly, an assistant professor of biology at Westminster College. “We don’t know where those would be.”
The State of Utah owns the island and protects it as a rookery. Only those escorted by state biologists are allowed to visit.
“We don’t allow any trespassing on this island at all,” Luft said. “There’s actually a one-mile halo around the island, you can’t fly within a mile of the island without permission.”
The PELIcam brings the island a little closer to Utahns, at least virtually. It officially went live this week. The solar-powered camera transmits an image of the island’s Lambourne Bay every five minutes and compiles a daily time lapse video of the images, too.
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Courtesy Westminster College Great Salt Lake Institute
An image from the Gunnison Island PELIcam on March 10, 2017.
The project is a collaboration among the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Westminster College and the University of Utah Department of Atmospheric Sciences MesoWest. The Tracy Aviary provided a $9,000 grant for the camera and for student research on the island.
Beyond keeping an eye on the live camera, the PELIcam team will also tap the public for help sifting through thousands of images collected by the island’s motion cameras when breeding season ends. To watch the pelicans and for more information on the project, visit GSLPeliProject.org.
Contact Reporter Leia Larsen at 801-625-4289 or llarsen@standard.net. Follow her on Facebook.com/leiaoutside or on Twitter @LeiaLarsen.