First oily bird rescued off Louisiana

[Robbien]

Source: USA Today

Wildlife rescuers are tending the first bird found covered with oil from the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The soiled young Northern Gannet was found offshore, cleaned with a common dish soap and given a familiar human treatment for an upset stomach. Teams from the Delaware-based Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research have set up shop at at historic Fort Jackson, about 70 miles southeast of New Orleans.

Flocks of the long-beaked Northern Gannet, which normally is white with a yellow crown and spends most of its life at sea, "engage in spectacular bouts of plunge-diving for fish, with hundreds of birds diving into the ocean from heights of up to 40 metres (130 feet)," the Cornell Lab of Orinthology says.



Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/04/first-oily-bird-rescued-off-louisiana/1

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Normally white, the article's picture shows a very brown oily Gannet

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. Oh noooo. Poor bird. Glad its getting help

[OKNancy]

2. That is so freaking sad.. and just the first of many

gut wrenching photos we are going to see.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Birds always seem to be the first to suffer.

:(

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. Well,this time many workers including possibly 11 dead suffered first. But lots

and lot of life will suffer next...

[dipsydoodle]

5. I meant

without contributing in anyway shape or form to the cause.

[FailureToCommunicate]

11. I know. You are right of course. (I'm old enough to have actually read "Silent Spring")

No offense, or slight intended in my previous reply.

[Bette Noir]

6. By "common dish soap" they probably mean Dawn.

Dawn donates vast amounts of detergent to rescue operations. I changed my brand because of this.

Unfortunately, most of the "rescued" animals still die, because of oil ingested before they were rescued. But, without the rescue efforts, all of them would die.

Poor critters.

[mopinko]

7. lots die just from the stress

for a wild bird to be handled that much is very hard on them.
even tame ones stress out. having a bird stress out and die in the hands of a vet is all too common.

[proudohioan]

8. I've seen those commercials, and have changed brands because of the donations, too!

Really, Dawn does seem to cut grease much better.

And the thought of what oil spills do to the wildlife is heartbreaking.

:)

[murielm99]

13. It really does cut the grease best.

Our vet gave us a recipe for skunk smell remover that includes Dawn detergent. It works better on the dog than anything we have ever tried.

No more tomato juice!

Dawn is a good product.

[meow2u3]

14. Dawn is an excellent brand of dish detergent

I buy Dawn not only because it's the best dish detergent for cleaning greasy dishes, but also because they use a good portion of the profits for animal rescue. It's worth the extra cost.

I actually used it to bathe a kitten I fostered 1 1/2 years ago. He was so covered with grease the flea shampoo didn't get off the grease, so I broke out the Dawn and he ended up squeaky clean.

My ex-roomie uses it to bathe her dogs, especially after they get greasy.

Rescue workers used Dawn to clean up the animals from the Exxon Valdez oil slick. They do have a chance.

[RantinRavin]

9. Actually they are not normally white

They have white bodies with brown wings.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

10. Here's what the little guy should look like

if he were clean

[uppityperson]

12. k&r