"Franklin Gress, who is covering southern California brown pelicans, reports about 700 BRPE nests at Santa Barbara Island (SBI), with 3-week-old young in late-March. Normal numbers of nesting pairs at SBI should be about 700-1,000. At Anacapa Island, about 4,000-5,000 pairs of BRPE is "normal", but BRPE were about 2-3 weeks late this year, with about 1,500 active nests (but still building) by the end of March. There were no chicks yet at Anacapa in late-March. Southern California Bight (SCB) BRPE therefore look somewhat better than those in the Gulf of California and farther south along Baja's west coast; but still, overall, they are late in phenology and lower in expected nesting effort so far than in previous years. Brant's cormorants in the SCB had not yet begun to nest in Gress's study areas. Double-crested cormorants are normally later nesters (April). Gress's monitoring will continue through July."-- Dan Anderson <fzdanand@mailbox.ucdavis.edu>.