Pelicans, murres and whales are feasting off-shore on huge anchovy schools

FORT BRAGG, 8/24/23 — Brown pelican 0C3, whom we will call Ozzie, was having a very bad day on May 16, 2022. Ozzie lay on Southern California’s iconic Hermosa Beach, emaciated by starvation and disoriented from a low red blood count. Ozzie had 12 fish hooks stuck in him, one gouged deep into his shoulder and another sunk into his thigh, causing infection, said Rebecca Duerr, clinical veterinarian and research director for International Bird Rescue. Ozzie couldn’t fly even if he had been strong enough to do so. One wing was wrapped tight to his body in fishing twine. He lay strewn on the beach among hundreds of other stranded, dying pelicans when International Bird Rescue took all the mass stranding victims to their veterinary emergency room.

After a six-week rehabilitation process in which he learned to fly again, Ozzie was fitted with two bands, one a distinctive blue color, and turned loose on July 7 near Royal Palms Beach in San Pedro. Duerr said he then flew off to join a massive flock. Despite the tags, nobody reported seeing Ozzie again until 390 days later, when this reporter photographed him with a zoom lens off Mendocino Village and sent the photos to International Bird Rescue. Ozzie was 556 miles north of where he was last seen.