Here at IBRRC we love the Brown Pelican. It’s part of our logo and we pride ourselves in treating this bird with the respect and care it deserves.
Since its beginning in 1971, IBRRC has worked hard to become the premier brown pelican rehabilitation organization on the west coast of the United States.
At both our centers in California, with the help of our individual and foundation supporters, we constructed 100-foot flight aviaries to help pelicans recuperate from sickness and injury. We’ve had remarkable success in treating and then releasing them back to the wild.
Earlier this year, both of our centers were inundated with these majestic birds. In three months we treated almost 600 of the pelicans after severe storms walloped California. The wet, sick and dying pelicans flooded into IBRRC centers after heavy rains and pollution from run-off that hit the California coast in early January 2010.
And we always liked this famous poem about one our favorite birds:
A rare old bird is the pelican;
His bill holds more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week;
I’m darned if I know how the helican.
– Dixon Merritt
As we respond to the Gulf oil spill we hope the pelicans stay out of harms way. If they don’t, we will be there in force to help them in a speedy recovery.
Photo of Brown Pelican courtesy Tom Grey
Love the picture, and the poem! Thanks for all you do for them. I can get to the coast, so let me know if you need any clean-up help.
This is such a nice enclosure for the pelicans to recuperate in. Good work!
Glad you enjoy the post and pelican enclosure.
Special thanks to the funding of both fight aviary goes to the Green Foundation and Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN). And to our wonderful staff and volunteers who helped finish it!