PELICAN RESCUED DURING 2010 OIL SPILL RETURNS FROM GEORGIA TO LOUISIANA

A pelican rescued from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, cleaned of oil and released in Georgia, has returned 700 miles to an island restored last year for pelicans and other seabirds.

It was among 5,000 oilcovered birds collected in and off Louisiana during the spill, and among 582 pelicans that were rehabilitated, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said in a news release Thursday.

Biologists don’t know just when it returned to Queen Bess Island. But a photo taken in March by a department biologist clearly shows the red band marked “33Z” that was put around the bird’s leg after its rescue on June 14, 2010, at the Empire jetties in Barataria Bay.

“It’s truly impressive that it made its way back from Georgia,” said Casey Wright, who spotted the pelican on Queen Bess Island.

After time with a bird rehabilitator, the pelican was taken by plane to a U.S. Coast Guard station in Brunswick, Ga., because the spill was still going on — the well wasn’t capped until Sept. 19, 2010. The bird was released on July 1, 2010.

Other birds released in Georgia, Texas and Florida have been spotted back in Louisiana, the department said. Zoos hold 11 that could not be released.

CASEY WRIGHT LDWF VIA AP A brown pelican with a red band marked “33Z” on Queen Bess Island.