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Rehabilitated birds from Louisiana's oil-spill zone are being airlifted to a new home that's famous for flight: NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Six brown pelicans, four laughing gulls and one common tern were flown from a bird-rescue center at Fort Jackson in Louisiana to Florida over the weekend. The birds were released on Sunday at the 140,000-acre Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is co-located with the space center. "They looked pretty normal," the refuge's supervisory park ranger, Dorn Whitmore, told me today. "They acted happy to be free again. If pelicans could look happy, that's how they'd look."
Bird-rescue crews were gearing up for another Louisiana-to-Florida transfer on Thursday, but Sharon Taylor, a veterinarian with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Louisiana, said the trip had to be postponed. "There was a problem with a last-minute health check," she told me. After the birds are cleaned up, they need a few days of drying and preening to make their feathers waterproof again, Taylor explained. During this evening's final check, she and her colleagues determined that the feathers weren't quite right yet. So it'll be another couple of days before the next airlift can take place.
Why go through all this trouble? The folks in charge of the bird cleanup don't want to release birds back into the oil-contaminated environment that forced the fouled fowl into rehab in the first place. Marsh birds such as egrets and herons are brought to inland marshland in Louisiana, such as the Sherburne Wildlife Management Area. But aerial searching birds, such as pelicans and gulls, like to dive right into the water to find their food. For them, the waters off Louisiana's shores are not a good option.
The lagoons on the space center grounds were judged the best place to relocate such species. "It's pretty safe in the immediate vicinity of where they're being released," Whitmore said. "Of course, we don't know what the birds are going to do after we release them."
During the earlier phase of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, some of the cleaned-up birds were brought to Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge on Florida's Gulf Coast, but as the plume of oil spread, experts switched the relocation effort to Merritt Island. "As best as we can tell, it's out of the main trajectory," Taylor said.
America's main rocketport may seem like an odd place to put a wildlife refuge, but it's been that way since 1963. Today, Kennedy Space Center provides a home for more than 500 species of wildlife, including endangered sea turtles, manatees, bald eagles and alligators.
Whitmore said the rehabilitated birds will be flown aboard a Coast Guard airplane into the space center's shuttle landing facility. From there, the emigres will be bused to release areas outside NASA's restricted zone. Each bird bears a leg band to facilitate future tracking, and the Fish and Wildlife Service is considering a more sophisticated monitoring effort that will involve fitting rehabilitated birds with radio transmitters.
As of today, 442 oiled birds have been collected alive from four states affected by the oil spill (Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi). Rescuers have gathered up 633 dead birds. Only 40 birds have been released so far. But you won't find Whitmore or Taylor suggesting that the birds aren't worth trying to save.
"Everything we've released so far, they've looked really good when we've released them," Taylor said.
Whitmore said Merritt Island offers plenty of habitat for the new birds on the block. "We don't feel that overpopulation will have any impact at all," he said. The pelicans in particular should feel right at home.
"They seem to get along pretty well," Whitmore said. "There are hundreds and hundreds on these islands where they roost every night. They're what we call a colonial nesting bird. They seem to be gregarious. ... I don't think it's an issue that these new birds have a Louisiana accent."
More about the oil spill and wildlife:
- Clean the birds, or kill them?
- See how the oil spill has shifted
- Oil spill clouds World Oceans Day
- Spill slideshow: Wildlife threatened
- Show us your favorite place on the Gulf
- NBC video: In Louisiana, a crude awakening
- Disaster in the Gulf: msnbc.com special report
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Leave a Comment:
At least a little bit of good news...
GOOD! I'm glad to hear that they're starting to transport cleaned wildlife out of the polluted areas and releasing them in areas with similiar habitat that are NOT polluted with oil.
Let's all hope and pray that BP gets the leak stopped before more areas get polluted!
They made a special trip for 11 birds? I would imagine a plane could fit more than that... why not wait a week and fly 20 at once, save some money. Sure, BP might be picking up the tab... but their money doesn't materialize from thin air. It comes from their customers - us.
More power to these people! I think it stinks to criticize them; they are on the front lines trying to help the victims of human greed. Thank you for helping our nation's wildlife--I wish there was something I could do to assist you in your efforts.
Bird rehabilitators can always use your help. Most rehabilitators are not-for-profit organizations. They need the materials to house and treat the birds, and the food. So make a donation if you can spare some cash. But donating some time is even better. You won't be expected to handle adult wildlife, that is up to those with experience. But there are other jobs that need done. If the rehabber is a large operation who also treats nestlings (baby birds) then they can use your help to feed the baby birds using eyedroppers. The cages and pens always need cleaning a couple times a day to prevent further infection. Maintenance of the larger flight pens is an on-going need as well. Rehabbers use the flight pen to allow the larger birds begin testing their flight feathers and prepare for release. Look in your phone book or do a search on-line for local wildlife rehabilitators. If nothing comes up, then check for local Nat'l Audubon chapters. Their websites usually will have info regarding where to take injured birds. There are veterinarians who will treat injured wildlife, or they may know of local rehabbers who need assistance. You can also find the contact information for the centers listed in this article and send them a donation.
oops, I thought my first post wasn't entered and there it is.
Good to hear that some birds are being saved. I'm dubious about them releasing birds now long before the oil spill will be cleaned up. Despite releasing them in Florida those birds will home back in on where they came from and return themselves to the danger of being oil slimed again and having to be rescued and cleaned again. Kind of ironic that Kennedy Space Center has a bird refuge considering all the commotion rocket launches cause. I sure hope that Presdient Obama forces BP Oil to pay for all of this bird cleaning and soon so the bird cleaners don't run out of money before they get the job done saving as many birds as possible.
This is nice news but the impact on maintaining the species in the long run on the gulf coast is minimal.
And what if they get nailed again in FL? Not such a nice thing.
That's great to hear that these birds have a new beginning. Considering that six of the birds are brown pelicans, you could say that they're priceless. They had just begun to make a comeback. I wonder if the birds will stay there and not try to fly back. I don't know that much about those particular species but I do know that birds form a map in their brains in order to migrate to the same area ever year.
When I was at the Kennedy Space Center a few yrs. ago, not only did I see the space shuttle return, but I saw wild manatees playing in the water. It was located on the other side of the observation tower. And of course we saw alligators everywhere--which was great. So I really hope the birds will fit in and stay there. Hopefully they can be reintroduced to the gulf of Louisiana and the brown pelicans will make another comeback.
I watched NBC news tonight and saw Mark Potter dive down to where the fish have made the iron from the rigs their reef. It's sad to think that all those beautiful fish and sea turtles might be gone a few wks. or even days.
As for the region that's been affected by the oil (and may be affected), I really wish some vacationers would keep their reservations. So what if they don't get to walk on clean beaches and play in the water? We're talking about helping people out who are losing their way of life. If I could go, I wouldn't hesitate to go..
I know it's not a popular subject, But it's called the "Gulf of Mexico" what is Mexico saying of the spill' will it affect Acapulco??