Pelicans, pelicans, and more pelicans...
January 2010
What originally started out looking like storm related injuries - wet, cold and hungry pelicans up and down the coast of California, has now turned in to - once again, something much, much bigger, and of tremendous concern.
Exactly this same time last year WildRescue was helping coordinate, log, and assist with the rescuing of hundreds of adult California brown pelicans showing up dead and dying from Oregon to Baja California. The west coast was experiencing something never seen before.
This year, we are witnessing a similar phenomenon though, so far, no cases of frostbite. Still, hundreds of debilitated adult California brown pelicans are being found from Astoria, Oregon to San Diego, California. Collectively, the toll may be in the thousands.
In Monterey and Santa Cruz, WildRescue has recovered over 16 pelicans like the one pictured below. Thin, weak pelicans, unable to fly. All the birds were transferred to SPCA for Monterey County for initial aid and from there to aquatic bird specialists International Bird Rescue in Fairfield, CA for treatment.
Rebecca Dmytryk rescues a weak pelican from Kirby Park. PHOTO CREDIT J.Kenney
This mortality event is worrisome. For the second year in a row we are witnessing a major change in California brown pelican migration resulting in a significant die-off of the specie's adults - birds that are over three years old with proven survival skills.
Usually sometime around October, Adult California brown pelicans are supposed to migrate south from their summer roosts in Oregon to their breeding grounds in Southern California and Mexico. Over the last couple of years, unseasonably warm weather and a plentiful food supply has caused thousands of these semi-tropic birds to linger in the Pacific northwest longer than they should.
Those that remain become trapped.
Cold temperatures and storms make it difficult for pelicans to find food. Without food, they cannot fly, if they cannot fly, they cannot feed nor can they leave. Thousands are said to be flocking along the southern Oregon coast, begging for food from people. Begging because they are truly starving to death.
In California, from the Monterey Bay area south we seem to be picking up the stragglers. Those that have made it south - weak and debilitated. But, is there enough food out there for them to support them?
Ironically, the California brown pelican was taken off the Endangered Species List just last year. Climate Change was surely not considered as a factor in their future - perhaps it should have been.
More to come...
Sea Slime '09
October 2009
Rebecca Dmytryk and Duane Titus of WildRescue helped with the transfer of hundreds of marine birds found cold, wet, and dying along the Oregon and Washington coast. The cause? A particular species of phytoplankton, or algae, typically seen in the warmer waters off California, was found in the northern waters in extraordinarily high numbers. Stormy weather churned the phytoplankton bloom into a soap-like foam. For aquatic birds this can be deadly.
It is the structure of a feather and their alignment that insulates a bird from water and wind – like shingles on a roof. When something disrupts this, whether it is oil, dirt, or a surfactant such as this, the bird is exposed to the elements and will quickly become saturated and cold. If they do not get to land they will drown as many, perhaps thousands, may have.As part of International Bird Rescue's response to this event, Duane picked up 145 birds - loons, grebes, and murres from a small rehabilitation facility in Astoria, Oregon - overrun with ailing birds, and drove them Bird Rescue's state-of-the-art bird hospital in Fairfield, California - a 13 hour journey. This trip was made possible through help from PETCO Foundation, The Oregon Humane Society, and the Hedinger Family.
With hundreds still left to transfer, the window of opportunity to save these fragile aquatic birds was closing fast.
Aquatic birds are built for life on water. Shaped like a boat, they can quickly, within days, develop secondary injuries from resting on hard surfaces, even padding material. It was a race to relieve the overburdened facility in Oregon of as many birds as possible and get them washed and into outdoor pools. With Bird Rescue's corps of highly trained and dedicated volunteers and staff, skilled in oil spill disaster response, the birds had a chance.
The following day, October 26, Duane, Rebecca, and Doris Duncan of Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, hitched a ride aboard a US Coast Guard C-130 to help collect additional birds. By sunset, 305 marine birds - loons, grebes, scoters, and murres, were offloaded and on their way to the facility where 45 skilled handlers and caretakers awaited. Time was so precious, without the help from the U.S. Coast Guard, the fate of these birds would have likely been grim. Keep informed on the birds' as they progress through rehabilitation at ibrrc.org.
While this mortality event was naturally occurring, it was an anomaly. As wildlife rescuers with over 30 years of experience, we have never seen anything like this until recent years. In 2007 hundreds of sea birds washed ashore in Monterey, CA, wet and cold. It was a complete mystery. After extensive research scientists discovered the cause.
Wildlife rescue organizations are often the first to see trends in impacts on wildlife populations. We are often the first called to respond. Starting in 1993 we began experiencing domoic acid events in California. They have now become almost seasonal, killing sea lions and sea birds each year. In 2007 we experienced the algal bloom mentioned above. In 2008 we witnessed a shift in weather patterns that caused thousands of California brown pelicans to be trapped in Oregon during severe storms. Hundreds died.
While there is resistance to use of the term 'climate change' or to point the finger at human activity, we cannot escape the fact that we are experiencing changes in the environment that greatly impact wildlife. Changes that species cannot adapt to. How can an aquatic bird adapt to sinking? How can marine animals adapt to a toxic food supply?
It is time for wildlife biologists, rescuers, local, state, and federal agencies to come up with a plan on how we should respond to these catastrophes when they occur. As it stands, the wildlife rescuers are on the front line, taking on the responsibility and the brunt of the costs associated with rescuing and treating the ailing animals.
COAST GUARD VIDEO/PHOTO RELEASE