Rescuers Retrieve Pelican After Terminal Island Jailbreak
Don’t call David Weeshoff the Birdman of Terminal Island Prison, and don’t call his rescue on Monday a jailbreak.
But it’s hard not to.
Weeshoff is a volunteer (and board president) for International Bird Rescue, which is headquartered in Long Beach. He works out of the IBR’s rescue center in San Pedro, and he’s been called before by the Federal Correctional Institute on Terminal Island, most often to pick up a sick seagull.
Monday was different.
“A girl named Valerie called and said there was a big, lanky bird caught up in the razor wire,” Weeshoff said. “It isn’t clear whether he was breaking in or breaking out. But it was too big for them to just put him in a box, like they can do with the gulls.”
Weeshoff grabbed some nets, the largest pet carrier he could find and another volunteer, then headed for the prison. When they arrived, they found a fully grown juvenile Brown Pelican on the ground outside the prison fence.
“The guards were able to get him loose from the wire, but he was just sort of sitting there,” Weeshoff said. “The other volunteer was able to distract him, and I got a net over him… The bird was calm. He was probably tired and hungry. He was full of parasites.
“Kudos to the corrections officers for getting him out of the wire.”
International Bird Rescue’s California centers — there’s also one in Fairfield — handle up to 5,000 birds a year. Volunteers travel the country and the world to help when there are oil spills, which is the predominant problem for waterfowl. But they’re also experts at dealing with physical injuries, orphaned birds and more, Weeshoff said. Handling each species, and each problem, presents its own challenges.
“Pelicans are covered with feather lice and pouch mites,” he said. “I don’t have any feathers or pouches, so they’re harmless, but it is kind of creepy to have them crawling all over you. They get under your clothes.”
Weeshoff said the bird would be thoroughly checked and treated, then be sent to isolation to recover. He should be paroled into the wild soon, Weeshoff added, but when he is released he’ll be wearing an ankle bracelet — one that identifies him.
“We’ll keep track of him that way,” Weeshoff said. “People can report sightings to us. We’ve only been doing that for a year or so, but it’s helpful to learn more about them.”
