Laurin has been rockin’ the outside aviaries at the Pensacola Oiled Bird Rehabilitation Facility: these are the aviaries with pools where the birds go after stabilization, then washing and drying, in order to reestablish their water proofing. The birds stay out longer and longer, under her eagle eye, until ready to spend the night in the pool without a haul-out area. Laurin loses sleep the first night ‘her’ birds spend outside, and grabs every opportunity to check on them – though without transportation from the hotel, that can be difficult.
One recent evening, a search and collection crew picked up a very debilitated bird along the coast and drove past the hotel to see if one of the rehabilitators would come check it in. Normally they have warm hospital cages to put the new birds in overnight, if there are no rehabilitators on duty, but they didn’t think this one would last the night without special care. Laurin jumped at the chance to do the intake, as she also wanted to check on seven birds that were spending their first night outdoors in a pool without a haul-out. And that turned out to be a very good thing, as she found a pied-billed grebe that had managed to stick his head out through the netting and was just hanging there!
Laurin had another issue of concern. All of the gannets were losing weight after moving outside, and she came up with a training technique to ensure they all eat and gain weight. Before, fish were being tossed into the pool, but if not eaten right away, they’d sink to the bottom and be ignored by the birds, plus rotting fish then had to be cleaned out of there. Laurin changed the protocol to 5 feedings per day, but after medicating those that need it (e.g., all the birds in the bumblefoot aviary are on antibiotics), she has trained them all to swim around and across the pool for their food, which she tosses individually to each one as it cross the invisible ‘finish’ line … so not only are they back up in weight, they are improving in fitness! Pensacola is getting kudos from Tri-State management for the condition of their gannets.
However, Laurin is dealing with a mystery with the gannets. For some reason, she is finding that some of them abruptly inflate air sacs under their skin over the whole breast and belly – like a ruptured air sac that we see from blunt trauma in songbirds that have been pounced on by a cat or hit a window really hard. One of the gannets died, but that could have been from other causes, and the others that are doing this are eating and behaving normally. With a ruptured air sac in a songbird, the birds are clearly uncomfortable and it takes days to resolve back to normal, even with periodic aspiration of the air with a sterile needle and syringe. Except for one gannet that ‘inflated’ in the wash, it does not seem to be when they are under duress, is not from rough handling or running into the soft sides of their pools. Everyone in the bumblefoot pool suddenly inflated … but by the next day every bird is normal.
Laurin and I were discussing what would be behind an apparently voluntary ability to send air from an air sac to under the skin (or maybe to inflate special air sacs under the skin that are not part of the usual respiratory system, but then where does the air come from?) We found in species accounts that gannets sometimes do this when diving into the water. But the different sources described it differently, from being around the neck and shoulders to breast and belly. And it’s still not clear what would stimulate them to do it in this captive situation. They nest in such close proximity to one another and have to pass myriad birds’ territories on their way to and from the cliff for takeoff, I was wondering if it had anything to do with making themselves look larger or to protect muscles from the bruising a poking gannet might inflict. Maybe, in the water, it allows them to rise faster after a deep dive? Like putting on water wings?
Pelicans normally have subcutaneous emphysema – like bubble wrapping paper – tiny pockets of air under their skin to help take the brunt of their sudden dives into the water, but what the gannets are doing is quite different. They look more like someone stuck a balloon under their feathers. At any rate, it’s an interesting thing to research – though we’re not having any luck contacting the author of the Birds of North American species monograph on Northern gannets. Any clues out there?
Laurin is mentally designing ‘Gannet Liberation Army’ t-shirts as she cheers the gannets on towards release. All the birds start in the baby (‘kindergarten’) pool, a small pool with an easy haul-out. The ‘elementary school’ pool is larger with several haul-outs; the bumblefoot pen where everyone is on systemic antibiotics has fewer haul-outs, as the more the birds stay in the water and off their feet, the faster their feet heal. And the ‘graduating’ pen – the fewest haul-outs of any pool and the last stop before freedom! Some of her birds are on track for release on the Atlantic Coast, including one gannet that somehow lost its tail. It’s growing back and its lack doesn’t seem to slow it down in the water at all.
The Royal tern that had blood blisters on its breast is healing well, but now a baby black skimmer has boils all over its skin – pink, blistery boils. No one is sure of the cause but the chemical dispersant being used on the oil is being discussed. The best product for treating these skin disorders has turned out to be a panthenol and vitamin E-based hair product! Panthenol is a derivative of pantothenic acid, or B5 – one of the B vitamins. It’s water soluble, so doesn’t grease up the newly washed feathers, penetrates the skin easily, is anti-inflammatory and soothing, and is sometimes used in human medicine for minor skin injuries, burns, allergies, or insect bites.
The birds being collected and brought in now are not usually being found drenched in oil; they may be lightly oiled but are coming in because of other problems.
Laurin is beginning to think about her return to Oregon – and she’d like to be back in time for her birthday at month-end.
Louise Shimmel
FYI, a report today from Louisiana Fish & Game included the following information on wildlife rescued from the spill through Wednesday 7/14:
BIRDS (Overview for duration of response) -
2,986 total birds collected within the five-state impact area (LA, MS, AL, FL, TX).
Louisiana bird collections only:
1,555 total birds processed in LA through Fort Jackson rehabilitation: 837 birds collected alive; 718 birds dead on arrival at rehabilitation center, euthanized due to extent of injury, or dead after rehabilitation efforts unsuccessful.
461 birds treated and released.
MARINE REPTILES & MAMMALS (Overview for duration of response) –
660 sea turtles collected in the five-state impact zone.
106 sea turtles of the total above were collected in LA waters (9 recovered alive; 97 dead).
64 dolphins have been collected in the five-state impact area -
35 dolphins were from LA waters (1 recovered alive; 34 dead).
Wildlife impact numbers are reported to the Unified Area Command from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, incident area commands, rehabilitation centers, and other authorized sources operating within the Deepwater Horizon/BP incident impact area.
