"California's brown pelicans, nearly driven to extinction by poisons a half century ago, are in trouble again, and no one knows why.

They aren't breeding and are flocking to fishing hot spots along the coast six weeks earlier than usual, said Daniel W. Anderson, a UC Davis wildlife biologist who has just returned from Mexico, where he counted thousands of the birds at their nesting sites.

These are the pelicans that are often seen flying in platoons over the bay, swooping down to skim above the water and plunging with wings folded in pursuit of a fish beneath the surface."

David Perlman reports for the San Francisco Chronicle June 3, 2014. [2]