12 more sleeps... and Pelican Sam

Now I know this image has nothing to do with my impending Parisian holiday whatsover, or even how many sleeps are left to go before we leave.... but I saw his picture this morning and have been distracted all day and I keep thinking how nice it would be to have 12 sleeps with him!

Nevertheless....

Sydneysiders woke this morning to a glorious autumn morning - the sun was pushing the curtains open from the sheer volume of rays coming our way. I sleepily wandered out to the balcony, scratching my belly like boys do when they wake up, but I could barely get my eyes open from the amount of sunshine pouring down onto me and my freshly scratched belly. The harbour was sparkling insanely. The water looked like it had been standing under every exploding glitter ball ever set free at Mardi Gras, Sleaze ball and Harbour party all at the same time. It had simply overdosed on super shiny silvery shimmering sequins. At the risk of sounding even more gay, it was just ‘wow!’. What a way to wake up!

We had a busy day, starting with all the Saturday morning essentials, like gym and laundry, then, once home again, a big bowl of fresh steaming rolled oats, covered in stewed, plump, purple plums, while we both read the papers in relative silence. ‘The Australian’ for me – The ‘SMH’ for Rich.

Going back a few weeks though, I have one of those sad stories to share that remind you how fragile and incredible this planet is that we live on. Last Saturday, Rich and I were walking into our gym in Alexandria and noticed a pelican sitting down in the canal that ran along side the building our gym was in.

These particular canals had made the front page of the news that very morning as being the most polluted waterways in the southern hemisphere. Rich and I looked at each other and thought that it was not a good place for a Pelican to be…



We went inside, grunted, groaned and sweated for a bit and when we came back out, Mr Pelican was still there. Very still. It was amazing his feet hadn’t melted off, from just sitting in the canal, from what I had read, so we decided that we couldn’t leave him sitting there like that and we had to get him out.

Mmmmm we thought….

I called WIRES and they tried to raise one of the volunteers to come out and get him out for us, but no luck. It was a long weekend and a lot of people were away. An hour later, I called them back and asked that if we could get him out of the canal ourselves, was there a vet nearby they could recommend I take him to? They gave me a few names of local vets and told me that the Fire Brigade might also be able to send a truck out with a ladder if they weren’t busy… WIRES
gave me an office number, as it wasn’t an emergency, so I called them up, told them the story and they said not a problem!

Less than two minutes later, a big shiny red fire truck pulled up and out hopped six big strapping firemen. Heaven! While we were walking up to the canal from the road, I heard sirens. I looked a bit embarrassed and said “gawd, it’s only a pelican” and the fireman I was talking to said “Yeah, it’ll be the Redfern boys – obviously bored! We’re from Alexandria station and we were on our way down to Bunning’s when we heard the call, so we thought we’d stop”

So there we all were, twelve tall and genuinely handsome firemen, two big shiny red trucks, Rich, me and one sick, sad and lonely Pelican.

Over the side of the bridge went a ladder with one Fireman attached as well, slowly descending into the toxic muck. When he saw the fireman come, he moved a little and tried to wander away, but his strength was failing him, so he sat back down again, only to have Fireman Sam wrap his arms around him and bring him back up the ladder, out of the muck, where he was promptly handed over to me for safe keeping.



So, here now I was, with this very large sick bird wrapped in towels in my arms. He was really very weak and gave not one inch of struggle to be free. His big head wobbled and I held his long delicate beak up for him as we slid gently into the back seat of my car.



I had been physically close to pelicans before, maybe a few feet, but never this close and their size is a little overwhelming – especially in the backseat of a hatchback. His beak nearly reached the opposite window, but not quite, so I held it up for him and rested my elbow on the armrest. He blinked his big black eye at me a few times, I’m sure to say “thank you for getting me out of that mucky drain”.

Rich drove us over to Taronga Zoo animal hospital where we had arranged to take him. Going through the harbour tunnel, he closed his eyes for a bit and I did start thinking “please don’t die on my lap like this, please, please please….” But out into the sunshine again on the other side, he opened his eyes again and blinked a few more times at me. They were such helpless, sad and resigned blinks I nearly cried there and then.

After winding through the awful traffic that you find in Mosman on a Saturday morning - actually, every morning - kids and mums squealing as they looked down from their 4x4’s into my back seat to see an enormous white bird sitting there… but about 40 mins later, we arrived at the hospital and the nurse took us through to the back, where we weighted him (4.2kg’s) and sat him in a pen under a warm light and said our farewells. Details were taken and the nurse said to call back in a few days to find out how he was going.

I called Taronga on the Wednesday and the vet who answered the phone gave me the news that he had died that night. Pelican Sam, so named after the fireman who rescued him, was indeed a young male adult, less than a year old and had severe blood poisoning. By the time we had got him there, it was too late and there was nothing they could do to help him. She thanked me for bringing him in though and kept talking for a while, but I had already had tears running down my face and had stopped listening. Stupid I know, but I felt I had made a connection with this beautiful bird, as it sat in my arms fighting for his life. His eyes looked straight at me and seemed to say thanks. Crazy loopy I know, but it was a real moment.

I was really astounded by how soft his feathers were, on his head, as well as his body, and the weightlessness of his body, compared to his physical size. I also have to say that it was a real privilege to have had this astonishingly beautiful animal in my company for a few hours.

The other sad part is that our illustrious State Government doesn't want to clean up the canals because it is too hard. I wonder how long before we are holding humans in our arms who are dying from the toxins and poisons in this waterway that has been polluted to the point of winning the title "The most toxic waterway in the southern hemisphere"