17 Aug Mary and the Pelicans
Please meet Mary, one of our longest serving members and a great Sea Bird Co-ordinator. Mary is out every day looking for injured ibises, egrets, pelicans and seabirds of every kind.
She uses a tinny where possible or her trusty canoe and does not hesitate to jump into the most overgrown and polluted water to help an injured swan. She has many different capture methods and will go back again and again, day after day, until she has found and brought in a bird that has been called in to our hotline.
The most common reason for these birds to come into care is entanglement and injury from discarded fishing line and fishing hooks. The pelican (pictured) has a typical fishing hook beak injury and infection caused by ripping as the hook was dragged through the water. Mary takes the birds to Currumbin Wildlife Hospital where they are anaesthetised and their wounds are sutured. They receive antibiotics for their infections and are very weak from not be able to eat for so long. Unfortunately, many do not survive, but Mary is always so happy when one can be saved.
She is truly an amazing woman.
