The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Stranded pelican rescued from icy river
ESSEX — A lone brown pelican, a rare sight in New England in the winter, was suffering from hypothermia and early stages of frostbite when rescuers found him huddled against a dock in the icy Connecticut River.
Rescued by state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officers, the bird, which was most likely blown off course from the area off Virginia Beach, “has responded beautifully,” to its care at A Place Called Hope in Killingworth.
“He couldn’t even lift his own head,” said Christine Cummings, president and founder of the bird rehabilitation center.
“It was in real trouble,” Cummings said.
Staffers tube-fed the pelican with warm fluids and electrolytes and slowly warmed him using heat lamps and blankets.
They also fed him a “fish milkshake” — a liquid fish mixture.
Caregivers also let him feed himself with live bait fish swimming in a bowl as he grew stronger.
Right now, “he can be feisty and strike,” Cummings said, noting that the pelican is able to stand and take a defensive posture,
actions he will need to survive in the wild.
She added that the pelican is a “first year bird” with a “good weight.”
Once the bird has fully
recovered, the bird rehab center is looking for a local pilot of a small plane to fly the bird South or someone who will transport him by motor vehicle.
But, it was the bird’s lucky day when Andy Griswold, director of Connecticut Audubon EcoTravel in Essex, came into the scene on Jan. 26. He tracked down the ailing bird after hearing reports of a pelican in the area. Once the bird was found, he contacted Audubon Society Executive Director Patrick Comins, who was key in coordinating the rescue.
Oddly, Griswold first learned of the waterfowl the day before, on Jan. 25, when he saw a post on Facebook of the pelican on the hood of a car parked at Saybrook Point.
The next day he got a text with a photo of the waterbird “flying over solid ice.” Griswold figured the pelican would seek out one of three coves in Essex, North Cove, Middle Cove and South Cove. Griswold began his search.
“It did take a little detective work,” Griswold noted.
While standing with his binoculars in someone’s backyard in South Cove, Griswold recalled, the homeowner, a woman, asked him “Are you looking for the pelican?”
Unfortunately, the pelican had flown off and Griswold decided to search Middle Cove, near the yacht clubs, on a hunch.
“It (the bird) was tucked up against one of the floating docks,” he said. But he knew something was very wrong with this picture.
“A pelican should be looking for food.”
Griswold noted that occasionally a lone pelican will be spotted on the shoreline in the early fall. Normally a pelican would feed on menhaden. which have had a prolific season this past year.
Because the bird was not sitting on top of the dock or on a piling, Griswold figured the bird “was not thinking correctly.”
And, unlike native ducks that have feet that have adapted to frigid New England waters, the pelican’s feet were in danger of frostbite. The water was probably about 36 degrees, Griswold estimated.
“The brown pelican is not designed for winter living,” he said.
In its home territory further South, the bird would be able to withstand lower winter temps of mid-40s to low 50s, he added. The Southern resident makes its home in the Caribbean and is also the state bird of of Louisiana, known as the Pelican State, according to Wikipedia.
Further evidence of its distress was the ease with which the two DEEP officers could capture the pelican, which listed and offered no resistance.
“It didn’t complain a single bit,” Griswold said, when rescuers got it into a plastic bin.