Pelicans from California to Oregon dying of unknown cause ...

Today I was mentioning to someone at work that I saw a few pelicans in Pleasanton at Shadow Cliffs lake beginning of this month and found it kinda odd.  Didn't think too much about it, but then he recalled an article on the Mysterious pelican deaths and forwarded to me.

From: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11430457

"In a troubling wildlife mystery, California brown pelicans are turning up sick or dead in suburban ponds, driveways and backyards — far from their ocean home.

Two of the elegant birds, emaciated and disoriented, were found in San Jose last week. Another was rescued from Searsville Dam at Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Preserve. Others have been reported at such unlikely locations as Belmont, San Bruno, Brisbane and Burlingame. One fell out of a tree in Oakland. Two were found in a San Francisco dumpster; another stopped traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge." 

Don't know about you, but i'm starting to see a pattern that is starting to worry me.  With headlines such as:

"Local News | California chinook fishery's collapse a disaster ..."

'Worst' crab season in memory | PressDemocrat.com | The Press ..."

"Why are thousands of bats dying in New York? - Science- msnbc.com"

"What's Killing The Honeybees?, For A Second Year, Bees Are Dying ..."

"Tens of millions of birds disappearing across North America"

Is there any good news out there??? 

According to this NYT article, the most likely explanation is the recent unusually cold weather in the Northwest.  As feed migrated northward, more pelicans migrated with them and then were caught off-guard by the sudden cold weather.  Many of the dying birds apparently suffered frostbite with various body parts frozen off.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/us/16pelicans.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=pelicans&st=cse

We're pretty close to the ocean but nobody that I've talked to has ever seen a pelican in our neighborhood.... Until last week.

This guy landed on our roof a couple weeks ago and stayed there for about an hour. Made an awful mess then flew away. Weird.