Pelicans in rehab find healing, friendship

He is big, broad-shouldered and chivalrous. She is petite and painfully shy. Once strangers in a strange land, a wounded wing and a shotgun blast have brought them together.

American white pelicans are somewhat rare in the world of Florida bird rehabbers. SeaWorld’s rehabilitation team in Orlando hadn’t seen one in nearly a decade, maybe longer. The brown pelicans — the ones that annoy fishermen by swooping in and stealing their catch — are more common.

But early last month, two whites came in, just one day apart. Pierre and Claire, as the team dubbed them, were both were conscious, hurting, confused and lonely.

Until they saw each other.

“They got very excited,” says Sherry Branch, SeaWorld’s curator of aviculture, better known as “The Bird Lady.” “They immediately waddled towards one another. I think it was comforting for them just to have someone else of the same species.”

White pelicans, after all, are accustomed to communal living. When it’s breeding season, thousands of them will take over an entire island, crammed together in a one big orgy of courtship and nest-building. They are serial monogamists.

But these two were united by trauma. Pierre, perhaps a year old, had been found in a lake near Bradenton, Fla.

“Its wing appeared to be broken, but he could swim OK,” says Ed Straight, president of the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center on Anna Maria Island.

Probably, Straight says, Pierre had become entangled in fishing line left in the lake and snapped his wing trying to free himself. “That’s what usually happens with birds,” he says.

He and his wife drove the pelican to SeaWorld’s rehabilitation center, a stretch of land just beyond the park.

That was March 7.

On March 8, state wildlife officer Heidi Cogburn and Orange County Deputy Kevin Oglesby, who works the marine unit, were patrolling the St. Johns River near Sanford when they saw a small, struggling white pelican in the water.

“With the airboat, it’s hard to maneuver, so it took us a while to get it, but once we did and pulled the pelican into the boat, we could see it was really serious,” said Cogburn, who works for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “Half of its wing — from where it hinges — was actually just exposed bones.”

“I don’t know how that bird lived,” Oglesby adds. “It’s amazing it wasn’t eaten by a gator.”

Claire, it turned out, was at least 3 years old and peppered with shotgun pellets — maybe a wayward shot from a duck hunter, maybe an act of cruelty. Her injuries were likely several weeks old. Much longer, and she would have died from dehydration, starvation or shock.

“We had to build up her strength a little before we could amputate,” Croft, the veterinarian, said. “I tried to leave her as much wing as I could while still removing all the dead tissue. Even though she’ll never be able to fly, the wing also helps with balance.”

Together for now

Meanwhile, X-rays of Pierre reveal an injured joint that has started to heal. And in the weeks since his rescue, with physical rehabilitation, he has regained better mobility.

But he has not left Claire’s side, except when forced. Her bandages do need changing, after all.

“They’re always right next to each other,” Croft says. “They walk together. They swim together. They rest together.”

For now, while they heal, they share a roomy fenced and netted enclosure, with vegetation and shade and their own private pond. She hides behind him, scurrying to the far end of their land when humans approach. Pierre runs interference.

His eyes dart between the intruders and her, keeping tabs on both.

There is hope that Pierre can eventually be released to the wild.

Claire, however, would not survive if she were set free.

“They have formed this very tight bond,” Croft says. “So it would be one of those bittersweet moments. But obviously, if he is able to fly, we want him to have as natural a life as possible.”

Claire would not be lonely for long. At the park’s Pelican Point, mostly inhabited by browns, there is a pair of American white pelicans, both males.

“There are two handsome men out there just waiting for her,” Branch says. “She’ll have a good life.”