Rescued white pelican is living the high life

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By Barb Ickes | Tuesday, December 2, 2008 11:20 PM CST | () comments

Art Norris, under the supervision and guidance of rehabilitator Susan Allison, is nursing the rescued Barstow pelican back to health by hand feeding it fish. (Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Buy this Photo

The minnows didn’t last long in the wading pool.

An injured white pelican, rescued last month from a stream along Barstow Road in East Moline, is such a quick and accurate fisherman that minnows don’t stand a chance. The large bird simply plunges its long beak into the little plastic pool and pulls out a flopping minnow.

It works every time.

“The minnows — that’s like giving him dessert,” said Art Norris, the bird’s full-time caretaker. “He can catch them on the very tip of his beak, throw them in the air and catch them.

“Actually, I don’t know why I keep calling it a him. We don’t actually know its sex.”

Much of the pelican’s story is a mystery. Norris spotted it on the stream several weeks ago, having noticed that its flock seemed to be waiting for it for most of one day before taking off to migrate. He then realized the bird couldn’t fly.

Two licensed wildlife rehabilitators, several volunteer firefighters and Norris and his son, Will, came up with a plan, using a boat and several nets, to capture the bird. They took it to a Davenport veterinarian who said it had an injured left wing, which would require several weeks — even months — of healing time.

Rehabilitator Susan Allison first watched over the pelican and then turned it over to Norris for continuing care. She remains in daily contact with Norris, supervising the bird’s welfare and recovery.

Meanwhile, Norris turned his rural Barstow attached garage into a pelican sanctuary, which includes a large horse trough for live minnows and fish, a large cage that can be hosed down daily (the water and contents go through a floor drain to a garden outside for recycling as fertilizer), the wading pool and a supply of frozen fish.

“Schafer’s (Fisheries, Fulton, Ill.) has been donating fish for us, which has been great, because he eats three pounds a day,” Norris said. “He eats the fish right out of my hand.”

Oddly, man and bird seem to have bonded.

“I don’t know if that’s good for him, but I don’t think he’ll have any problem going back to the wild when the time comes,” Norris said. “I’m kind of attached to him, though. He seems pretty content — the way he’s grooming all the time and the way he lets me pet him.

“At first he just bit me all the time.”

The injured wing has changed, too.

“A lot of infection came out of that wing,” he said. “I think nature has its way.

“I was told to try to tape the wing down, so he wouldn’t keep trying to fly. I taped it down, and I came back out here, and he was taking that tape off like he was a surgeon.”

Allison said she has high hopes for the pelican, adding that she also has noticed the bonding between man and bird.

“That pelican is making such good progress,” she said Tuesday. “Injuries take a while, but I think he’s going to be releasable. The swelling is way down, and the soft-tissue damage seems much better.”

She said she was not surprised to see the bird eating out of Norris’ hand.

“This pelican knows he’s a pelican,” she said. “They do work for food in groups, and this is just a different kind of group. It’s not going to become dependent.

“When you can get close to them like that — that’s when they’re the sickest. They know you’re helping them. The pelican will have no problem going back to the wild. It won’t be so easy for Art.”

Norris said he is just thrilled to see the bird making progress, including the small steps.

“He used to poop in the little wading pool where I put his fish, but he’s learned not to poop where he eats,” he said. “He’s obviously more proud now of the way he looks. I thought about putting a mirror by his cage, but I was afraid it would just make him lonely.

“Sometimes he turns his head to the side and looks at you. It’s so cute.”

Donations to help the injured white pelican can be sent to:

c/o Pelican Fund

Wells Fargo Bank

1800 30th St.

Rock Island, IL 61201

Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.