Plentiful pelicans: Richter Museum’s Erdman talks birds with Fox 11 News

Members of your Log news team had noticed, but not given much thought to, the sizeable number of pelicans hanging out near the Fox River Dam in De Pere. It turns out the birds are part of a pelican resurgence in our area, as UW-Green Bay’s Tom Erdman explained in a Fox 11 News story that aired Thursday (July 18). Erdman, curator of the Richter Museum on campus, told reporter Eric Peterson that the huge colony of pelicans on the waters off Green Bay wouldn’t have been possible two decades ago — but now, there are perhaps 1,200 pairs of the birds in the Cat Island area of the bay. They’ve drawn attention (including ours) down in De Pere, where they gather to look for food, Erdman said. Interested parties should check ’em out soon — by August, many of the pelicans will be gone, Erdman said, opting to winter in Florida and along the Gulf Coast. But they’ll be pack, part of a continuing expansion of the population in our area. Full story.