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Birds and Goodwill

heidi08 Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, New Species October 31, 2009

Jon was treated to a whirlwind of goodwill at the bustling, dynamic, constantly updating bird rescue at IBRRC. He was put immediately to work under the direction of their head “handyman” who is a retired refinery worker married to one of the regular volunteers. Together they built cages, fences, ramps and perches for some 700 complaining and pecky rescued birds (more were delivered by the Coast Guard).

Both days he was there volunteers filled the place, some drop ins and locals who just wanted to help. Yesterday a maintenance crew from nearby 6-Flags amusement park was “loaned” for the effort, and since they were used to building tanks for dolphins, they were naturals at building tanks for scoters and murres.

Jon came home smiling and exhausted both days, and promptly sent a volunteer alert to his fellow employees at the powerplant, who in turn want to help out anyway that they can. If you’re interested in offering a few hours of help, contact the good folk at IBRRC or just drop in. Monetary Donations are needed also. IBRRC will tell you what they need and show you what to do. Don’t know anything about birds or which end of a hammer to hold? How about laundry? Food service? Clean-up? Think of something you can do, because they most likely need it and will be appreciative. You’ll feel great after and bouyed with a spirit that knows that there are good people doing grand things in the world. I promise.

Bi-yearlings?

heidi08 Beaver News, kits October 26, 2009

Worth A Dam has been quietly mourning the fact that we had no kits that survived this year. It is hard to know why that was, but we know some reasons why it wasn’t. It was not because of inadequate food supply, because the rest of our family is looking quite fat and happy. Our beavers are eating mainly tulles with a side of willow, and with the entire marina at their disposal they aren’t running out of cattails any time soon. It was also probably not because the mink ate them. A beaver kit, even newborn, is the size of a guinea pig and a mink is smaller than a cat. Also mink are notoriously messy eaters and would likely leave clues. Jon has been checking the creek in the kayak and hasn’t seen signs of what happened. One benefit of the mink is that they are very high on the food chain, so if they were here and thriving it gives us an important clue about creek health, which suggest that it probably wasn’t something bad in the water either.

It may have something to do with mom’s eye condition, and her not being well enough to care for them. From what we could see she stopped milk production early and she may have just been unable to feed them. Or maybe they weren’t around anymore so milk production wasn’t triggered. A good portion of beaver watching is guesswork, and to be honest, we just don’t know why we didn’t have surviving kits this year. We hope its a one-time event, and that we get a new batch next year, but we just don’t know what will happen.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Which brings me to the title of this post. What happens next year? Normally kits hang around and become yearlings and last year’s-yearlings take off and become adults. What happens when you skip a generation? Our three yearlings are still here and healthy and almost ready for the world. Will 2008 beavers be “failure to launch” yearlings? Will they stick around for an extra lesson in dam building and become bi-yearlings? The research says they can stay with the colony 2-3 years, so this could be the three they’re talking about. How will Mom and Dad feel about them sticking around? Aren’t you curious?

Speaking of curious, if you want to know more about the origins of algae bloom that is causing so much grief for the north coast’s seabirds (and our VP of wildlife!) check out this slideshow and lecture from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It’s a great introduction to the issue.

Birds & their helpers need your Help!

heidi08 Environmental, New Species October 24, 2009

There’s a massive algae bloom off the Oregon and Washington coast. No one knows why, but it means that the oceans are covered with a thick foam. The foam washes away the protective oils on the water birds, leaving them without the ability to repel water and stay warm. Thousands of birds are washing up on shore, many dead or too weak to survive. The rescue center seen above had stepped boldly up to take care of scoters, grebes, loons, murres, and other shore birds from washington, but now is overwhelmed by its own birds as the effects of the bloom move south. They were overwhelmed and sent some birds north to a sister facility. Now they need help from California.

Enter IBRRC. (International Bird Rescue & Research Center). They are experts at dealing with these kinds of situations, but this is different. It’s like the effect of an oil spill without the oil.. They dispatched a volunteer friday night to go to Oregon and rent a truck that could bring some 200 birds back to their head quarters in suisun in animal carriers. They are starting with the loons which are the most time sensitive. In anticipation of the arrival they put out a massive volunteer call which is how I heard about it. Our own Cheryl Reynolds, will be there monday and probably many days after to help.

P. CHILTON/Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team

A red-throated Loon, covered in foam, lies in the sand near the Klipsan beach approach on the northern end of the Long Beach Peninsula. The bird was still alive when this photo was taken.

If you can help IBRRC or the Wildlife Center in Astoria, please do. The frontline folk have been struggling to keep up and IBRRC has only dealt with this kind of bloom once before. No one knows why it happens. Sometimes its entirely natural, and sometimes its triggered by the actions of man. What would a sea be like with no shore birds? Help if you can.