In all, over four years I rescued over 400 birds and took them to the infirmary.
19th call, me rescuing a pelican with fishing line wrapped around a wing
18th call, a juvenile Night Heron
More on the pelican (above) I rescued.
I caught the pelican OK, but did not have a large cage with me (the large cages do not fit in my little Volvo), so I put down a blanket and put him in the trunk. It is a 45 minute drive to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, and half way there I thought that he might be getting warm back there, it was 80 degrees out. So I stopped and folded down the rear seat back so he could get some AC. Off we went. A few minutes later, here was the pelican perched on the console beside me! It was really neat driving along with a pelican perched there, he was looking around, watching everything!! Then he reached down and poked me on the wrist with his beak. They have no barbs on their beak the way cormorants do, so when he bit me earlier as I was catching him, it felt like chopsticks grabbing my arm, no problem at all. But they do have a sharp point at the end of the bill, like a sharpened fingernail. The point scraped my forearm, but no big deal. The he poked me again, again no big deal, then he decided to attack! He flew in front of me, between me and the steering wheel! His bill came down and scratched me from my scalp to my right eye and his wings were beating me all about…while I was driving! Time to stop this. I pulled over and put him back in the trunk and closed it up for the rest of the ride! He and I were fine, but I then had a souvenir – a scar to talk about over Thanksgiving dinner on the cruise ship! What an adventure!!