‘When two Standard Oil tankers collided in 1971 beneath the Golden Gate Bridge spilling 900,000 gallons of crude oil. Little was known about oiled bird care at that time and despite the courageous, attempts of hundreds of volunteers, only 300 birds survived from the 7,000 birds collected.’

So begins the account on the History page of California’s now globally-important International Bird Rescue Research Center, an organisation that runs wildlife hospitals 365 days a year, has an oil spill response team of more than 25 wildlife experts, and which has now worked on oiled bird rehabilitation efforts in over 200 oil spills in 11 states, seven different countries and two U.S. territories…

A great part of what 10,000 Birds is all about - as we hope some readers may have noticed - is conservation, and that includes the organisations and people involved in conservation too. Though there may not have been a major oil spill recently (which might otherwise have been the trigger for this post), we were put in touch with IBRRC’s Laurie Pyne, by the wonderful Mira Tweti (who will occasionally be blogging live from Mexico on this very blog as she makes a film of her inspiring book ‘Of Parrots and People‘ from next week!), and we’ve become so enthused by IBRRC we just had to write a quick post now.

(Hopefully we’ll also be following-up with with another post in late-July when I’m planning to visit IBRRC HQ in California, but more of that later…)

What follows below is a short article written by Laurie specially for us, and then a look at the recently-launched “Everyday Wildlife Champions” programme run by Proctor and Gamble, who’s ‘Dawn’ soapwashing liquid is used by IBRRC in their cleaning operations (at a strength of one percent solution of Dawn dishwashing liquid in clean water in case you’ve an oiled bird you’re thinking of trying save - though it’s a darn sight harder than that last glib clause might have suggested and spilled oil is extremely toxic of course).

Washing oiled birds during the San Francisco Bay spill, 2007.
Photo © Russ Curtis/IBRRC)

“The mission of International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) is to mitigate the human impact on aquatic birds and other wildlife, worldwide. We do this through emergency response, rehabilitation, education, research and planning.

We are the world leaders in aquatic bird rehabilitation, oiled bird rescue and rehabilitation, and the management of oiled wildlife efforts during an oil spill.

To maintain our expertise in rehabilitation skills we operate two state of the art aquatic bird rehabilitation centers in California. Our location in Fairfield serves the San Francisco Bay area and Southern California (Los Angeles area) is served by the San Pedro center.

Every day of the year we receive wild injured and ill aquatic birds that are treated and rehabilitated in our clinics until they are able to be returned to their natural habitats. The most common reasons a bird is brought to us include, but are not limited to injury, urban encroachment, entanglement with fishing lines and other hook and tackle injuries, domoic acid poisoning, botulism, mystery spill oiling, and animal cruelty. We see our obligation as environmental stewards to educate the public on the nature of the problems that these birds present with and in so doing, benefit the animals as well as humanity.

 

Poster created during the 1971 ‘Oregon Standard’ oil spill

 

IBRRC was founded in 1971 after the Oregon Standard collided with another ship under the Golden Gate Bridge, which resulted in a massive spill of crude oil that covered over 7,000 birds. From our very humble beginnings in a makeshift oiled bird center in Richmond, California, to a warehouse in Berkeley that the Berkeley Humane society generously donated to us, to our present 10,000 square foot headquarters facility in Fairfield, IBRRC has grown and evolved into the leading oiled wildlife response organization in the world.

To its credit, IBRRC has now responded to over 200 national and international spills including the Exxon Valdez, Cosco Busan and the Treasure Oil Spill in South Africa.

 

Oiled auks, ‘Exxon Valdez’ oil spill. Photographer unknown.

African Penguins, ‘Treasure’ oil spill. Photo © John Hrusa/IFAW

 

IBRRC has a state of the art rehabilitation program and an abundance of aquatic birds, the species that are most susceptible to oil spills. With over 5000 “patients” a year in our clinics, we offer the only rehabilitation program that is specific to aquatic birds on a year-round basis. We have an internship program that draws people from all over the world to participate because it is unparalleled in its broad scope and unlimited levels of learning and skills gained directly from ongoing, consistent, hands-on and cutting edge training with live, wild aquatic birds. IBRRC has now trained over 35 individuals representing over 13 countries. This level of maintained skill is what highly qualifies our staff to immediately and effectively respond to an oil spill. Our clinics are in a constant state of evolution, developing new and better treatments and protocols for the care and rehabilitation of these species.

Our pelican rehabilitation program was enhanced this year with the addition of a 100 foot long pelican aviary in our Fairfield Center, which provides rehabilitating pelicans the opportunity for flight conditioning and strengthening, such that we are confident they are fully flighted before their release. This aviary, coupled with a similar aviary in our San Pedro center are the only two such enclosures along the western coast that provide this level of rehabilitation for pelicans.

Both got a workout in the past 12 months when our centers experienced two crises with California brown pelicans, one involving juveniles at the end of summer of ’08 as they came to our centers in large numbers with fishing hook and line injuries as they clashed with fishermen in Santa Cruz over schooling anchovies and sardines. The other crisis event affected breeding adults in over Christmas time into the new year when vast numbers were received in our clinics with a constellation of problems with all causes never completely revealed. Some were frostbitten and caught in storms in the Pacific Northwest, others tested positive for domoic acid poisoning and most were emaciated, disoriented and very weak. Our centers treated hundreds of pelicans in a few short months.

Staff and volunteers operate our clinics in both locations 365 days a year. Our volunteer program is essential to our clinic operations. Without the extra hands it would be an overwhelming workload for staff when so many other additional tasks are added in to the regular care and treatment of patients on a daily basis such as cleaning of aviaries, cages, floors and pools, feeding, transporting birds, laundry, yard maintenance, etc.

Many of our volunteers have been with the organization for a number of years and actively handle birds. The opportunity exists for a volunteer to develop their skills and knowledge to work with the birds as actively as they choose, commensurate with their experience and with approval and oversight by our clinic staff. Our trained volunteers were instrumental in the efficacy of our response at the Cosco Busan spill.

Currently at IBRRC we are deep into ‘baby season’. This year brought a new batch of Double-crested Cormorant eggs from a work project involving the PG & E electric towers. PG & E enlisted IBRRC’s help in recovering nestlings and eggs from these towers and everyday more eggs were hatching. Over 30 baby cormorants are being hand-fed with puppets throughout the day, as our staff and volunteers don special black cormorant wear to remove any visage of humanity so that the babies do not imprint with humans. All these birds, once they are able to feed themselves, will be released into areas in the wild where other cormorants are to help ensure their success.

This year our clinic is filled with numbers of Snowy Egrets, Green Herons, Killdeer, ducklings, goslings and Black-crowned Night Heron chicks. They are very demanding but the joy is the reward of seeing them return to their natural habitats. The young birds we receive each year are typically the victims of accidents, urban encroachment, dog attacks and the intrusion of well-meaning people. Last year, over 1,500 orphaned and displaced ducklings were brought to our centers. To give these birds another chance is not only our responsibility but a way to give back to the environment and to preserve it for future generations.

One of our most interesting programs is the gosling reintroduction program. Once gosling ‘babies’ are stabilized in our facilities and have any immediate health issues taken care of, we are able to foster these birds out with wild goose families. An existing goose family is often make of of a number of babies from different parents called a crèche. This doesn’t work with ducks, but is very successful with geese.” (Laurie Pyne, IBRRC June 2009)

Like many conservation organisations IBRRC needs funding, and they’ve created a very interesting bond with the enormous multi-national Proctor & Gamble.

P&G manufacture ‘Dawn’ dishwashing liquid, and, to quote from the IBRRC website, “More than 30 years ago, the IBRRC was seeking a solution to clean oil from bird’s feathers. IBRRC discovered that Dawn dishwashing liquid was powerful enough to effectively remove oil from birds’ feathers, while remaining gentle on their feathers, skin and eyes. Since then, rescue groups worldwide have chosen Dawn to clean aquatic animals…”

” …’Dawn has made a difference in helping us save countless birds and animals over the years,’ said Jay Holcomb, IBRRC’s Executive Director. ‘But this effort is even bigger. This says we all can make a difference and every little bit helps.’”

Who knew?

This summer, as they have done for some years now, P&G are giving a percentage of retail sales from ‘Dawn’ to IBRRC. All we as consumers need to do to donate to saving oiled birds and abandoned chicks is to buy a bottle of Dawn next time the plates are piling up in the sink, go online to enter a special code from the bottle at http://www.dawn-dish.com/en_US/savingwildlife/home.do, and then - er, that’s it actually…if only raising funds for conservation was always so easy eh?

Perhaps it might be persuasive to explain just how spilt oil affects birds unfortunate enough to encounter it?

This quote is once again from the IBRRC website:

“[F]eathers overlap each other like the shingles on a roof to create an entire waterproof covering for the bird. Properly aligned feathers will not allow water or air to penetrate and ensures that the bird is buoyant and insulated from the cold. Every day birds spend considerable time preening because if their feathers are not perfectly aligned it could literally mean death.

When a bird encounters oil on the surface of the water, the oil sticks to its feathers, causing them to mat and separate, impairing the waterproofing and exposing the animals sensitive skin to extremes in temperature. This can result in hypothermia, meaning the bird becomes cold, or hyperthermia, which results in overheating. Instinctively, the bird tries to get the oil off its feathers by preening, which results in the animal ingesting the oil. This ingestion can cause severe damage to the bird’s internal organs. The focus on preening overrides all other natural behaviors; including feeding and evading predators, making the bird vulnerable to secondary health problems such as severe weight loss, anemia and dehydration. Many oil soaked birds loose their buoyancy and beach themselves in their attempt to escape the cold water. The fortunate ones are picked up by concerned citizens or capture crews.”

Worth a detour to the detergent aisle in your local supermarket? I reckon so - though to be totally honest Dawn isn’t available here in the UK: I guess I’ll have to pick one up next time I’m in the States…

Laurie has been incredibly generous with her time and information (conservationists, such nice people!) and has promised to arrange quite a tour for me if I do make it out to the Fairfield Centre next month: frankly, I can’t wait to see the facilities first hand and report back. Stay tuned!

For more information go to

• The IBRRC website at http://www.ibrrc.org/index.html
• The IBRRC blog at http://intbirdrescue.blogspot.com/
• IBRRC on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Bird-Rescue-Research-Center/110165288744
• The most excellent Amber Coakley of The Birder’s Lounge visited IBRRC’s San Pedro Centre and wrote a great blog about her visit at My visit to the International Bird Rescue Research Center. Well worth checking out for the last Pelican photo alone!

Additionally, the 10th International ‘Effects of Oil on Wildlife Conference’ - which promises to be an outstanding event - will be held in the enchanting city of Tallinn, Estonia the week of 5-9 October 2009: the scientific programme will take place from 4-8 October, with optional side events organised on Monday, 5 October and Friday, 9 October.

The event’s website is at http://www.eowconference09.org/