Observation ID: 88172

Submitted by jfquinn on
Condition
Dead
Animal
American White Pelican
Identification Confidence
100% certain
Observation Date / Time

Freshly dead white pelican on the road into the Woodland wastewater treatment plant just east of the city (on an extension of Gibson Rd.)  No indications of a vehicle collision (and the traffic there is extremely light -- a few plant vehicles and occasional birders). so I assume it was a powerline collision instead.  (Standard phone/power lines are along the road.  9 other pelicans were in the adjacent pond.

Observer
Jim Quinn
Travel Frequency
several times per week
Estimated Time Since Impact
definitely less than 6 hours
Carcass Position
road surface
Roadway Speed Limit
25 mph
Road Type
local paved
Location Description
I couldn't get the map/location feature to work today, but the coordinates (from an image on Google Maps) are 38°39'44.6"N, 121°42'58.9"W. The animal was on the north side of the pavement on the access road to the Woodland wastewater treatment plant, between two largish ponds regularly visited by migrating/transient waterbirds (and a local birding hotspot) -- roughly half way between a turnoff north to the regional drinking water treatment plant and the entry to the wastewater plant.There is a standard wooden-telephone-pole phone-power line along the north side of the road. As noted above, I suspect a collision with a phone or power line, rather than a vehicle, caused the death.

Observation Map