Pelican City Traditional Cache

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Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This cache is a tribute to all the hardworking professional and amateur biologists out there. They work hard at thankless tasks but are rewarded by experiences beyond the scope of the everyday.
Cache is placed in a remote and beautiful place surprisingly free of geocaches. Container is a 1 liter water bottle tied loosely to a shrub. Not for those who are in a hurry to be somewhere or for those easily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock movies. Cache is easy to find but hard to get to.

Other ideas for the cache name include “Don’t Look Up With Your Mouth Open” or “The Day of 1200 Pelicans.”
I made it to this area by stowing away as a volunteer on a research team. We set out from Chrisfield, Md, although I’m sure there are many appropriate launching points on the Maryland and Virginia shores of the Chesapeake. If you make the trip be sure to save yourself some time to visit Ruke’s Crab House on Smith Island. You won’t be disappointed.

The site of this cache is a Brown Pelican rookery filled with literally thousands of nesting and fledgling birds for most of the summer. Although they may seem intimidating with their large flapping bills they are relatively harmless. The large birds will fly away upon your approach, and those unable to fly do their best to avoid you. Just be careful of your feet and avoid nests with immobile birds or unhatched eggs.

I set up this cache on Monday, July 28, 2008 as a volunteer on the second day of the Big Brown Pelican roundup. After waking up at 4:15 am to leave Annapolis and roughly 6 hours of transit by car and boat we finally made it to the rookery. Thousands of pelicans honked and snapped at us, their abandoning parents swirling overhead using only droppings from above to defend their helpless chicks. Within minutes I got the hang of catching the birds, and before long was holding up to six at a time while waiting for the skilled banders to attach a wedding band around their ankles. The idea was to catch and band as many of the young pelicans as possible to gain information on survival and migration. Dave Brinker and John Weske are the principal investigators on the project, initiated by Dave over 10 years ago. By now some 17,000 brown pelicans have been tagged.

It was a unique and enjoyable day and at the end of it all I felt the need to share the experience with the geocaching community. Unfortunately I only had my water bottle, a pencil, and a log book to leave as a reward for the first to make this journey. If you are planning to head out please for my sake take a copy of the standard Cache Note available here: (visit link) Also, since the spot I chose is continually beaten by weather, wind, and possibly even the waters of the bay, feel free to reattach the container to a more stable anchor point if necessary.

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