SAULT STE. MARIE — Steven Seagull will be in Sudbury for the next few months.
No, not the actor – but an injured seagull named after the action star.
Earlier this year, Algoma Steel employees found a group of seagulls attacking one of their younger counterparts. When they stepped in, the workers found the young bird had sustained injuries that left it unable to fly.
The bird had a leg injury and had burned one of its wings.
At that point, the workers decided to take the bird into their care.
“He looked hungry, so we fed him, and then we fed him the next day,” said Mike Defrancesco.
Before long, the young seagull became part of the crew, and came to be known as Steven Seagull.
“He knew our coffee breaks. He knew our lunchtime. He was waiting at the door, watching everybody come in,” Defrancesco said.
Every day, the bird showed up to have lunch and take a break with its new friends.
“We'd all bring scraps in to feed him and stuff like that,” Defrancesco said.
“One of the guys brought him smelts. He loved fish.”
As the months dragged on, Steven Seagull became pretty popular at Algoma Steel.
“It was just cool. You're coming in, there's a bird – he's waiting at the door,” Defrancesco said.
“Guys call on the radio, ‘Oh, your bird’s a little early today.’”
When winter hit hard in late November, however, the workers started to worry about Steven Seagull.
“The last night, it was -16. I came in and he wasn't there, and I'm thinking he died. We should have done something,” Defrancesco said.
“Then we see him hobbling across the street coming over for food.”
That day, the workers brought Steven Seagull into their lunchroom to warm up, and then reached out to a local falconer, Aleigha McLean, for help.
McLean agreed to take in the bird and arranged transportation to Turtle Pond Wildlife Centre in Sudbury.
“We were able to look at his wing, and lots of his feathers on the one wing were singed off, so we kind of just made an assumption that he flew too close to the smokestack,” she said.
Despite his injuries, McLean hopes Steven Seagull will recover in the coming months at the wildlife centre.
“I think he will make a full recovery once he starts his molt. It's late spring, early summer, that seagulls typically lose their feathers and regain new ones,” McLean said.
“Fingers crossed, he’s going to be able to fly again.”
Before McLean sent Steven Seagull off to Sudbury, she said the group of Algoma Steel workers reached out several times to see how their friend was doing.
“They were asking for updates, and they were very dedicated to him, so of course I gave them all the updates I had,” she said.
“I'm so thankful that everything worked out the way it did.”