Laurin called Thursday evening, the 8th. The team had gotten off early, had dinner, and were returning to the Pensacola Oiled Bird Rehabilitation Center later that evening to pack up a great blue heron and three loons for transport at midnight, for release in the Tampa Bay area first thing Friday morning. Earlier on Thursday, the Governor of Florida had personally released, on an inland lake, some pied-billed grebes the facility had washed.
Things have calmed down a bit, for the moment, for all the facilities with the exception of Gulfport, MS, which is being hit really hard right now. Pensacola had received only three oiled gannets and a pelican on Thursday, allowing them to do some catch-up work. It’s been convenient, timing-wise, as the laborers that just started were in the middle of moving the wash stations closer to the water heater, and trying to do something about the area between the outside aviaries, where the constantly spilling pools has created a bit of a marsh.
Laurin’s buddy, Greg Frankfurter, was leaving Friday to go back to UC Davis, where he is, I believe, a second year vet student and also works at their raptor center. He had been training her for the last several days to take over the outside husbandry work. It’s another adrenaline-rush job and Laurin feels flattered the team is trusting her with it. It’s a heavy responsibility: stopping and checking on each bird in each pen, trying to see bands, knowing a bit of each one’s history of washing, stabilization, progress, and making decisions. Making sure they are eating, preening, not lethargic or depressed.
Once the birds are washed and dried, they go to the outside aviaries. There, they must be watched constantly, individually – if they get cold, or they are swimming too low in the water, if their tail is up, if they get wet, or they’re sinking – they need to be netted and put back in the drying room. Since most of these birds (e.g., the gannets and loons) are not designed for life on land, when inside they get a towel ‘doughnut’ vet-wrapped to their keel to prevent pressure sores, and vet-wrap booties to prevent bumblefoot or pododermatitis, a general term for foot infections. The inside pens and cages all have net bottoms, to both allow feces to fall through to avoid soiling feathers, and to distribute the bird’s weight – the netting gives a bit, like sand. (Net-bottom caging was one of the single most important advances in sea bird care some 20+ years ago. In normal hospital cages, with the birds on towels or newspaper, feces can build up around the vents of the birds, disintegrating feathers and allowing water to get in to the skin – once started, the process is difficult to reverse.)
Regaining and maintaining water-proofing is the single most important aspect of the birds’ readiness for release. Thursday night was going to be the first night outside for three gannets and Laurin was like a nervous mom! It’s a nerve-wracking balancing act, basically, getting the timing right for when they can handle the pools full-time, without ‘mom’ looking over their shoulder. They do have haul-out platforms, but if they get wet to the skin, they can get hypothermic, even in the Florida temperatures. Laurin was hovering over 4 pelicans, 20 gannets, 4 loons and 3 grebes in the outside pens. The scoter is now able to keep his down dry – those all-important under-feathers – but his outer feathers keep getting wet, making him too heavy and he sinks. So he has to be supervised carefully when in the water, and he can be outside for short periods only.
The Coopers hawk mentioned in the last blog had a coracoid or other shoulder girdle fracture and was very emaciated. He wasn’t oiled and having him brought into the oiled-bird facility only delayed getting him the care he needed, as they have no supplies for starvation cases other than fish eaters. He was transported to a local rehabilitator.
There continue to be rescue snafus – like US Fish & Wildlife bringing in 300 cannon nets, but only 150 of the propane containers needed to shoot them off. Word on the street was that they managed to catch 80 gulls with one net, but only a few were oiled. It sounds like these nets would have been awesome earlier on, when the Louisiana barrier islands where the pelicans were nesting were first hit by oil.
The facility’s supply situation is looking up… they now have plenty of dry erase boards and office supplies, and netting for cages. But no bandage scissors – they’ve been requisitioned. I forgot to ask if they had gotten forceps or tongs to replace the chop sticks they were using to hand fish to the birds! Laurin says she lives in a pen vortex – she’s constantly losing the pens she needs for writing on charts.
Many contract responders have a personal ‘spill bag’ – so when they get the call, they need only pack their clothes and they’re ready to respond. Things like spill boots, preferred gloves, their own bandage scissors, or a Leatherman, a pocket belt to keep all these things in, even duct tape and pens! Laurin is planning her own – I can tell. She’s clearly been inducted into a way of life that she enjoys – learning a lot, working hard for the birds she adores, with companions she respects and likes. Some aspects are becoming a bit too ingrained, though – she confessed that when she was eating lunch the other day (and the new caterer is awesome!), she found herself putting on her safety glasses as she reached for her fork …
Louise Shimmel
