Current monitoring of American White Pelicans at Gunnison Island and the Great Salt Lake show high connectivity between colonies within the western population, with many birds from the Gunnison colony traveling to other colonies throughout the western United States and Canada. Gunnison Island is thought to be a source population for much of the western population, but poor understanding of population dynamics within the breeding colony and drivers of annual breeding success on the island limits our knowledge of how this island drives local and regional pelican populations. American White Pelicans are extremely sensitive to human disturbance during the breeding season. Early disturbance readily results in nest abandonment. This sensitivity to human disturbance, coupled with the barren remoteness of the island, makes monitoring this population nearly impossible before the chicks fledge. As a result, previous efforts have been limited to banding and wing-tagging fledglings during a single trip to the island each year. The difficulty in monitoring this population has limited our ability to measure fledgling mortality as they attempt to leave the island, measure impacts of wing-tagging on survivorship, and characterize fledgling dispersal movements; all of which are also goals of the Pacific Flyway Council's American White Pelican Monitoring Strategy (Pacific Flyway Council. 2018. A Monitoring Strategy for the Western Population of American White Pelicans: 2018 Revision. Pacific Flyway Council, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon. 19 pp; http://www.pacificflyway.gov/Documents.asp). The goal of this project is to fill these significant gaps in our understanding of the Gunnison Island population, and therefore the greater western population as a whole. These data are used to directly inform USFWS permits and policy, including take permit authorization and stipulations.

1. Coordinate with partners to establish a network of at least five initial Motus towers. Four towers will be placed around the perimeter of Great Salt Lake in areas with highest expected pelican traffic, and one of the towers will be placed on Gunnison Island to specifically collect data on fledgling survival and departure dates. This proposal supports one of the planned towers. 2. Tag up to 150 American white pelican fledglings per year with VHF-MOTUS tags to collect data on fledgling mortality, initial departure date, path of travel in and around Great Salt Lake, and inform first-year survivorship rates and potential threats to survivorship. 3. Build on existing partnerships with entities interested in American White Pelican conservation and movement, including the local Wildlife Management Areas, George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Wildlife Education Center, Salt Lake City International Airport, Tracy Aviary, US Fish and Wildlife Service Refuges at Bear River and Fish Springs.

Nesting colony productivity monitoring.

Pacific Flyway Council. 2018. A Monitoring Strategy for the Western Population of American White Pelicans: 2018 Revision. Pacific Flyway Council, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon. 19 pp. -Directly contribute to western population monitoring estimates and FWS take permitting Utah Wildlife Action Plan Joint Team. 2015. Utah Wildlife Action Plan: A plan for managing native wildlife species and their habitats to help prevent listing under the Endangered Species Act. Publication number 15-14. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Salt Lake City, Utah. -Address data gaps of migration, nesting colony productivity, and distribution of subadult birds Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program. 2019. Gunnison Island Wildlife Management Area Habitat Management Plan. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Salt Lake City, Utah. -Monitor nesting colony, monitor conservation action effectiveness (closing public access, etc) Salt Lake City International Airport Certification Manual, Wildlife Hazard Management Plan. referenced February 2020. -Provide population data to the Airport and identify source of pelican numbers near airport which represent a significant hazard to airport safety.

N/A

Related to lake level of the GSL. But largely N/A

The federal bird banding permit held by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has already been updated and approved for the attachment of VHF-MOTUS tags.

Current American White Pelican projects on Gunnison Island include banding and patagial tagging of up to 500 fledgling white pelicans annually by the UDWR. MOTUS tagging will be incorporated into the protocols of this project; no additional handling of adult or fledgling pelicans is required. Following methods used currently in annual fledgling banding on Gunnison Island by the UDWR, fledgling American White Pelicans will be corralled and captured for banding with USGS aluminum tarsal bands and patagial wing-tagging. Lightweight (~ 0.45-1g) MOTUS tags (Cellular Tracking Technologies, model: Lifetag; Lotek, model: VHF NanoTag) will be affixed to fledgling body feathers using waterproof superglue, a common method for attaching lightweight tags to a variety of avian species. MOTUS tags will be affixed to birds with and without patagial wing tags to measure mortality associated with wing-tagging. This method is not expected to increase potential injury to wing-tagged pelicans. MOTUS stations will be constructed on Gunnison Island, and in at least four other locations to receive MOTUS tag signals (this funding request is for the station planned on the Promontory Peninsula). The stations record the unique ID, time and location data of tagged birds that pass within range of each station. Additionally, the PTT's being deployed on adult American White Pelicans will have built in MOTUS receivers so each pelican will act as a mobile MOTUS receiver station.

Data will be managed through the MOTUS network and internally through the DWR GIS team. Utah State University (Aimee Van Tatenhove, PhD student) will provide analysis of migration and movement data, DWR staff at the NRO and GSLEP will provide productivity and survivorship estimates. The MOTUS towers and adult pelican-mounted mobile receivers are not limited to pelican frequencies. As part of the MOTUS network these receivers will automatically collect location data on any MOTUS-tagged species within range and upload them to the shared on-line database. Likewise, as our young-of-year pelicans migrate, any passage by other MOTUS project receivers will be collected (see https://motus.org/ for map of current locations). As the Great Salt Lake is the Grand Central Station of western bird migration, we anticipate collateral benefits to many relevant projects, from raptors to shorebirds to waterfowl.

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Salt Lake City International Airport Utah State University US Fish and Wildlife Service Refuges Great Salt Lake Institute/Westminster College Tracy Aviary

Future deployments of tags may be necessary to refine estimates, or have replication across years. MOTUS station maintenance will be provided by NRO Wildlife Conservation Program and GSLEP

Monitoring and management of the American White Pelican nesting colony on Gunnison Island WMA

07/01/2022

06/30/2023

2023

VHF Motus tags were purchased through CTT and are currently being held over. The nesting colony on Gunnison Island was found to be abandoned this season so no fledglings were available to band. CTT advised the bands can be stored with occasional recharging of the batteries to maintain lifespan without reducing the tag's overall expected deployment life.

Since the nesting colony was abandoned this season, banding was unable to occur. The tags were purchased and are being stored for deployment next season. 6 Motus receiver stations were installed around the great salt lake and the infrastructure continues to grow. The abandonment of the Gunnison colony was a predicted possibility due to low lake levels and illustrates the urgency of continued water management to maintain lake levels and the ongoing need to conserve this population.

The nesting colony will continue to be monitored and if the colony is used next year, we will be able to deploy tags in the summer of 2024. If the Gunnison Island colony is not active, we might have an opportunity to deploy the tags on another pelican nesting in northern UT. While this won't measure the productivity of the Gunnison colony specifically we can measure the productivity of a secondary smaller (but successful) colony. We will also gain valuable information on migration and movements of fledgling dispersal and subadult behavoirs.