Back in the beginning of September I noticed a flock of pelicans had made a pit stop in the pond between trails A and B. A short bit later while clearing out trail B I noticed that they all had left but one. I thought it was a little odd and never saw it fly. As the weeks went by it became more and more obvious that something was wrong and the pelican was not going to leave. At one point I got a little closer to it and could see that one wing was badly hurt and that was preventing it from flying. Through some friends and the DNR we were put into contact with Marie Thorn from the St. Cloud area that helps rescue injured birds. After explaining the situation she wanted to come down as soon as possible and catch the pelican so she could bring it up to Roseville for some help. So last Sunday a few volunteers got together before the cold weather and snow came to rescue the bird. We got off to a rough start as the pelican swam off to the middle of the pond where we were unable to reach it. Eventually with the help of a long rope we were able to coax it out of the water and into the mud where we were finally able to capture the bird and get it into a large pet carrier. The scene was pretty comical as we were stumbling in the mud chasing after this rather large bird. From there the pelican was transported to Roseville to have its wing looked at. Unfortunately we received word today that the injuries to its wing were too severe and it would not be able to recover. As a result they had to put it down. While that news was very sad, it would have been much worse to watch it starve and freeze this past week. Over the past couple of months I very much enjoyed seeing the stark white bird standing out against the mainly drab brown backdrop of the pond on my nearly daily bike rides past it.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 01:29:35 +0000