Plight of Bird Stuck in Tar Pit Brings Flock of Rescuers

On a day that one group of bird census-takers was searching among downtown skyscrapers for rare falcons, another group of bird lovers a few miles away was struggling at the La Brea Tar Pits hoping to save one of them.

The unusual rescue attempt at an oozing pond of tar was revealed Monday as local members of the National Audubon Society wrapped up their annual Christmas bird count--which included the sighting of a lone peregrine falcon seen circling high over the corner of 5th and Flower streets.

The downtown falcon was one of 10 that have been induced to nest on tall structures around the Los Angeles area in an ambitious attempt to save the peregrine from extinction. Along with others that nest in Glendale, San Pedro and Santa Monica, a breeding pair reside atop an office tower in the Mid-Wilshire district near the tar pits.

The soaring falcons are a familiar sight in the parkland that surrounds the tar pits and the George C. Page Museum.

So park visitors were jarred Sunday when they noticed the outline of a raptor stuck in the glue-like tar of Pit 9. Witnesses told this story:

A man walking his dog flagged down visitors Patricia Depew and Crystal Clay, sending Depew looking for a bench that could be used to help in climbing a fence that encircles Pit 9.

A homeless man who spends his days in the park ran to get a eucalyptus tree branch to use as a pole. Clay raced to the museum office to ask workers to help.

As the bird started to sink, the dog owner climbed over the chain-link fence and used the branch to lift its head above the tar. Struggling to keep from falling into the pit himself, he eventually managed to pull it to the side of the pit.

Tar pit lab supervisor Shelley Cox ran out to help. The rescuers wrapped the raptor in her lab coat and she carried it inside and called other museum workers, city animal control officers and bird expert Diane Waters.

Waters, an Echo Park nurse who says she has rescued 2,829 wild birds during the last year, began heating the canola oil she would use to dab away the gobs of tar stuck to the bird as animal control officers hurried to pick it up.

On Monday the rescuers waited to learn whether a peregrine falcon--on the endangered species list because of poisoning by modern-day DDT insecticides--had fallen victim to the same tar that helped wiped out other animal species 40,000 years ago.

Page Museum archivist Cathy McNassor recalled the day she got a close-up look at a falcon that smashed into a museum parking kiosk while pursuing dinner; the bird hit so hard that it knocked itself out, but it survived. McNassor said wildlife such as egrets, pigeons, mallards and great blue herons have been successfully plucked from the pits in the past.

“But it’s a terrible shock for a bird,” she said of the tar. “It’s very serious if they ingest it.”

The news was bittersweet when it finally came.

When Waters cleaned away enough tar to see the bird’s coloring and shape, she discovered it was a Cooper’s hawk, not a falcon. But the raptor died Monday morning from having ingested tar.

“I was sorry for the Cooper. But I was relieved,” Waters acknowledged. “I’m so glad it wasn’t a peregrine.”

The Audubon Society’s Larry Allen, who was in charge of Sunday’s peregrine count, agreed. So did the Page Museum’s McNassor--and park visitor Depew, a Los Angeles attorney.

“It wasn’t a peregrine. But it was a beautiful bird,” Depew said.