We noticed a pelican sitting on the beach, which in itself was odd, but then we saw the surf was coming in and he wasn't really moving out of it's way, which was more odd. Then we saw him try to fly away from the surf at which point we realized his wing and foot were hurt. On the cell phone I went, thankfully knowing the number for DNR only to hear the most absurd message ever, which after pressing a few buttons gave me a number to call if I was calling about an injured animal, another number to call if I was calling about a nuisance animal, information about how to find stuff on the internet, and then said you could leave a message and they would call you back on January 4th. Wow, thanks for the help. Somehow I feel like if I'm calling about an injured animal I'm not going to be on a computer, January 4th is of no help, and by this point people who have issues remembering numbers are having issues remembering the first number you listed really fast.
While all that was happening a family walked up and was talking with my dad, Brandy, Matt and Tabbi. After I dial the number that I'm hoping I remembered correctly and a voice said 'hold on one minute' and then was talking on another line, I wait thankfully to find out that the family that walked up had already called DNR so I can hang up on this very long process of getting in touch with someone at my office the week I know NO ONE is in the office! They inform us that there is not one at the office (yep, I figured that one) but that if we could get Mr. Pelican into the car we could drop him off at the Birds of Prey Rehabilitation about a half hour up the road. That is where our staff would have taken it anyway, I guess there were just not enough DNR people in the office to do the transporting. So, the DNR person told her some very handy tips such as the fact you can't hold their bills closed or they can't breathe, the inside of their bill is razor sharp, their necks are very resilient, and when you pick them up they will only weigh about 4 pounds, much lighter than you think.
We made attempt number one as our new friends' husband ran to grab their car, which they had put a laundry basket and towels in from their house. We realized one of the problems was going to be the fact that when we walked towards him he tried to fly away very sadly, which took him further into the surf. We were concerned about this but just planning our attack until the surf actually knocked him over and he was floundering underwater until he finally flipped back over. Brandy, who had already had her shoes off was rolling up her pants, and my shoes were coming off in moments. Brandy walked out into the surf (which by the way was FREEZING) to keep him from trying to go back out into the waves, I walked out into the surf but not at far which got him to look away from my direction to try to get away, and our friend swept in quickly from the side and grabbed him before we even knew what happening. It was pretty impressive! Mr. Pelican was none too happy with this process and decided to try to bite our new friend so my dad held his little neck so he wasn't swinging it wildly about (good thing we knew not to hold his beat shut!).
We all ran him out to the road (through briars on the ground on our bare feet) and into the back of their car and they headed out to give him a fighting chance at the rehabilitation center. We then headed back to the house on our freezing little tootsie toes and into some warm socks. It was all rather eventful to say the least, and certainly added some spice to the scattering of my mom's ashes...but that's probably how she would have liked it :)
Our friend's daughter captured the saving of Roger the pelican as they named him on the way to the rehabilitation center. Yes, I am at this moment wearing no jacket, a massive winter hat and am in bare feet...you have to be nimble when saving pelicans and the hat keeps you someone warm at least :)
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