I've Gone to the Birds!

By now you probably know that whenever you contact me, I soon start talking about birds - especially pelicans. Maybe this explains why I don't get many calls anymore, but I've decided to assault you with some visuals anyway. Since late October, I've been volunteering on Saturdays at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia, next to the Suisun Marsh. This is one of two state of the art facilities in California that comes under the auspices of the California Fish and Game Department. I work about 10 hours with a half hour for lunch. I feel privileged to be around the staff and the birds - both are exceptional and often quite amusing. Most of these photos were taken by one of the volunteers, Liz, who made them available to me on her Flicker site.

The IBRRC is a 10,000 sq. ft. facility for the rehabilitation of wild water fowl. It is at the ready in case of a major oil spill.

Behind the main building are the therapy pools and aviaries.

This is the 100 foot long pelican aviary. Right now, there is a pelican crisis with hundreds of pelicans becoming emaciated, disoriented, and prone to other problems. The reason for this is not clear yet, but we had about 40 pelicans this past Saturday. In the wild, hundreds have died in the past two weeks.

Here I am holding the business end of a pelican that is being rinsed by Monte and Greg (facing camera). Greg is a UC Davis Vet School student, and Monte is the facilities manager. Monte is a poet, and is possibly one of the wittiest persons I've ever been around.

This pelican was contaminated with oil which prevents it from waterproofing and staying warm.

We always have grebes, it seems.

This week we had this brown booby.

A great tat worn by a dedicated IBRRC volunteer.

This is Mark Russell who has been on wildlife rescues all over the planet.

Birds often have to be tube fed either fish slurry or Pediolite.

Monte and a volunteer washing a gull, I believe.

We've had a great blue heron the past couple weeks.

That's Marie on the left, assisting Shannon, our veterinarian. She is one of the Saturday crew with a great sense of humor and is a Rehab Manager.

We currently have a couple of loons like these. In fact, all the staff are somewhat loony.

This is Donna, another Saturday regular, getting the tube feeding syringes ready.

Thank you IBRRC for fixing my broken leg.

Interns from around the world come to the center and do 3-4 month internships, working 10-12 hours a day, 5 days a week. The woman pictured is from Brazil, and left shortly after I started. Since I have been there, there have been interns from Canada, Mexico, and now England.

Well this is what it is all about - a successful release back into the wild, in this case IBRRC's backyard.