G
GloBug
Guest
You're a Western grebe and covered with oil.
Your feathers have lost their ability to keep you waterproof and warm, and you can't stay afloat. You swim to shore and lie there shivering, gasping, pecking feebly at the black stuff on your feathers and swallowing some in the process.
What happens next?
Rubber-gloved hands pick you up, wrap you in a dry towel and put you in a dark box. That's all you remember until the box opens again about an hour later.
You're in the Intake Room at the Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center in Cordelia. It's also the headquarters for the International Bird Rescue Research Center.
IBRRC is a leader in the field of oiled wildlife response and rehabilitation. They also manage the operation at this key rescue center in Northern California, and another one in San Pedro in Southern California.
None of this matters to a grebe. You just care about getting warm, fresh fish and getting this stinking black stuff off your feathers.
Intake Room: Arriving birds get an ID band on a leg. Observations are recorded on their new record form, and a mug shot is taken. They are now evidence. Blood samples are taken, weight is recorded and each gets rehydrated.
If a bird is in critical shape it can go to Intensive Care. Otherwise it moves on to what the staff affectionately
calls the "Dirty Bird Room."
Dirty Bird Room: Here birds are placed in special pens for at least 48 hours and given support care by volunteers and veterinarians (fed, treated, kept warm) and stabilized until they're strong enough to handle the stress of being washed (acting normal, normal blood values, etc.).
Cleaning Room: Birds are washed in warm baths of Dawn dishwashing soap and water. It's done in a series of baths with soft tooth brushes and WaterPiks. After each wash they go to a new bath, and another, until there's no oil in the water, then rinsed. This oil seems to come off well but the birds are heavily oiled, taking time to clean.
Drying Room: Clean birds dry in pens with commercial dog grooming dryers.
Warm and cold water pools: When birds are dry and starting to preen, they are moved to warm water pools and monitored as they swim and preen. Preening is vital, since it gradually restores the bird's proper feather structure (damaged by the oil) until it's waterproof again.
Once birds are seen swimming and preening normally in the warm water, they are moved to cold water outdoor pools where they can swim and get in and out of the water and preen and eat full-time. They are banded with a federal band and released when stable, not anemic, waterproof, acting normal, and when the vet says it's OK.
Kitchen: They have a modern, stainless steel kitchen where fresh natural food is prepared for all species of birds being treated.
Other: The center also has walk-in freezers (for food, dead birds), special tanks to hold dirty (oily) water until it can be transferred to a special recycling facility, sand filters for each pool, floor drains and industrial washers.
There is also a fully equipped state-of-the-art rehabilitation room that would make a veterinarian (and me!) drool. This is where IBRRC does year-round waterfowl rescue and rehabilitation when there are no oil spills.
Now, back to our Western grebe.
If you didn't die from swallowing oil, you're now as clean as you were before the spill and ready to be released far from the spill area.
You are also one very lucky Western grebe.
Feeling better now?
Your feathers have lost their ability to keep you waterproof and warm, and you can't stay afloat. You swim to shore and lie there shivering, gasping, pecking feebly at the black stuff on your feathers and swallowing some in the process.
What happens next?
Rubber-gloved hands pick you up, wrap you in a dry towel and put you in a dark box. That's all you remember until the box opens again about an hour later.
You're in the Intake Room at the Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center in Cordelia. It's also the headquarters for the International Bird Rescue Research Center.
IBRRC is a leader in the field of oiled wildlife response and rehabilitation. They also manage the operation at this key rescue center in Northern California, and another one in San Pedro in Southern California.
None of this matters to a grebe. You just care about getting warm, fresh fish and getting this stinking black stuff off your feathers.
Intake Room: Arriving birds get an ID band on a leg. Observations are recorded on their new record form, and a mug shot is taken. They are now evidence. Blood samples are taken, weight is recorded and each gets rehydrated.
If a bird is in critical shape it can go to Intensive Care. Otherwise it moves on to what the staff affectionately
calls the "Dirty Bird Room."
Dirty Bird Room: Here birds are placed in special pens for at least 48 hours and given support care by volunteers and veterinarians (fed, treated, kept warm) and stabilized until they're strong enough to handle the stress of being washed (acting normal, normal blood values, etc.).
Cleaning Room: Birds are washed in warm baths of Dawn dishwashing soap and water. It's done in a series of baths with soft tooth brushes and WaterPiks. After each wash they go to a new bath, and another, until there's no oil in the water, then rinsed. This oil seems to come off well but the birds are heavily oiled, taking time to clean.
Drying Room: Clean birds dry in pens with commercial dog grooming dryers.
Warm and cold water pools: When birds are dry and starting to preen, they are moved to warm water pools and monitored as they swim and preen. Preening is vital, since it gradually restores the bird's proper feather structure (damaged by the oil) until it's waterproof again.
Once birds are seen swimming and preening normally in the warm water, they are moved to cold water outdoor pools where they can swim and get in and out of the water and preen and eat full-time. They are banded with a federal band and released when stable, not anemic, waterproof, acting normal, and when the vet says it's OK.
Kitchen: They have a modern, stainless steel kitchen where fresh natural food is prepared for all species of birds being treated.
Other: The center also has walk-in freezers (for food, dead birds), special tanks to hold dirty (oily) water until it can be transferred to a special recycling facility, sand filters for each pool, floor drains and industrial washers.
There is also a fully equipped state-of-the-art rehabilitation room that would make a veterinarian (and me!) drool. This is where IBRRC does year-round waterfowl rescue and rehabilitation when there are no oil spills.
Now, back to our Western grebe.
If you didn't die from swallowing oil, you're now as clean as you were before the spill and ready to be released far from the spill area.
You are also one very lucky Western grebe.
Feeling better now?