Animals on the move

Brown pelicans, past our beach

Seven pelicans, two years, past Carolina Beach both ways.

Medium

Seven GPS tracks, 2023 to 2025

Length

44 s

Collection

Animals on the move, The Carolina coast

Posted

Nov 10, 2026

The story

Seven brown pelicans GPS-tagged at a nesting colony on Virginia's Eastern Shore, in real time from May 2023 to June 2025. They spend summer at the mouth of the Chesapeake, fly south past the Outer Banks and Carolina Beach in late fall, and spread out for winter: one to Cuba, one to the Florida Keys, one to central Florida, and one that barely leaves Virginia.

Whenever a tagged bird is within 25 km of Carolina Beach, a ring pulses there and the header says so. That happened on 26 days.

What you're seeing

• Each color is one bird.
• The faint lines are everywhere a bird has been.

Data

• Lamb, Satgé and Jodice 2026, Movebank Data Repository (public domain)
• Seafloor: NOAA NCEI elevation mosaic

Have an interesting day.