Injured Brown Pelican

Today Moira and I went back to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary to visit the facility. As soon as we stepped out of the car, we were greeted by Frankie the Sanctuary's famous Brown Pelican that was rescued 15 years ago and is now their greater! His squawking and landing so near to us, was a bit too much for a 18 month old toddler. She practically leaped into my arms. I spent the first half an hour walking around with her glued to my body. She did enjoy the owls and woodpeckers, but when we got to the pelicans, and white egrets, and blue herons, the noise was so loud it was overwhelming for her. I found a bench where we quietly watched one injured brown Pelican who eyed us for a very long time. She was quite concerned because he had a band-aid on his leg. We found out it takes 15 workers everyday to feed the roughly 250 birds their 600 pounds of fish. The mission of the Sanctuary is to rescue, repair and rehabilitate injured birds and then release them back into nature. They have been open for 40 years, 365 days a year. By the time we were through with our visit, Moira was happily walking around talking to the birds. I hope they knew what she was saying!