TRUCKEE, Calif. — "Whitey" the pelican is on the road to recovery after being rescued from a Truckee pond.
Whitey and other pelicans are no strangers to the Truckee area. Will Richardson, executive director for the Tahoe Institute of Natural Science, said pelicans are usually long gone around this time of year, and if this bird stayed much longer, its life would be in danger.
"They should have left the region and headed to lower elevations and lower latitudes where things don't freeze over... this bird was at a relatively shallow pond, and it was starting to freeze over, so it wasn't going to be able to fish," Richardson said, adding that the bird likely wouldn't have made it much longer at that point.
One of the issues at hand was that Whitey wasn't able to fly, at least not well enough to fly out of the area. Eventually, word got to the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science (TINS), and while they don't specialize in rescues, they opted to put together a rescue operation.
Richardson put out a call to other volunteers and set up the rescue. He said there was about an inch and a half of ice on the surface of the pond, meaning they had to break through the ice on their kayaks while getting to Whitey.
"It's amazing how well it worked out. Honestly, he just sort of got himself cornered into this little pinch point in between a little island and the shoreline," Richardson said.
From there, one of the volunteers, who had experience catching large birds, was able to scoop him up and bundle him up.
"Turns out an Ikea bag is the perfect Pelican tote," Richardson said.
Whitey was ultimately taken to International Bird Rescue in Fairfield. He's in great shape, but they're still looking into why he couldn't fly. Richard said Whitey had a completely healed leg fracture, but it's not clear if that was a factor.
"If this bird had sort of been stuck there and frozen, he might have ended up as eagle food or coyote food or something and, you know, eagles got to eat too. But we just felt like it was worth giving it a shot," Richardson said, explaining why he and the volunteers took on the rescue.
He also said a big part of what TINS does is encourage people to take care of their resources. And, in a sense, the drive people had to save Whitey did just that.
"If folks are going to connect to an individual bird, and that's going to inspire them to want to take better care of, you know, the rest of the wildlife and the natural environment, then, that's a good thing to do. That's an effort worth making," Richardson said.
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