Critter Geek

Click here to read part 1 of this story.

On Thursday evening I went back to International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC), eager to see what jobs I’d be assigned. I’d been watching the IBRRC Blog as the numbers changed from day to day…more birds washed, more birds brought in, and more birds DOA or euthanized. Intake seemed to be slowing, and the washing teams were making headway on catching up.

While assembling our group of volunteers for assignments, Cindy asked what I’d done on Tuesday. “Holding.” She laughed and replied, “My holders always come back!” I said, “Well, I’ll do anything!” and she looked at the other volunteers and said, “And they always say they’ll do anything!” It was a good feeling to be here again.

My first job was cleaning feeding tubes and syringes. It’s essential that these are washed and sanitized correctly…the mash that’s forced through the feeding tubes can sometimes clump or form blockages in the tube that prevent the person tube-feeding from being able to force the plunger down. Here are some fellow volunteers at the non-oiled washing station we worked at:

When we finished all the dirty tube assemblies we could find, we found Cindy to ask for more work. Since she didn’t have anything right away, she gave us a treat: we couldstand in the washing room and observe how the birds are washed.

Wow! Yes, it is true the the birds are washed in Dawn dish washing soap. There are three people on a team to hold the bird, manage the soaping, and to provide rinsing. They first take the bird to a washing station where a hose is attached to a power-sprayer filled with a soap solution, and the bird is “power washed”. This is an amazing process, obviously very stressing to the birds. I watched a dirty Western Grebe get power washed and it was incredible to see the white begin to come back on the bird during power washing (I thought it might end up turning into a Clark’s Grebe with more white for a minute!). After this initial wash, the bird is taken to another station where it’s held mostly under very soapy water, and carefully scrubbed to remove all traces of oil. I got to watch this process on a scaup. The woman cleaning the bird was happy to show us how she did the work; I asked if it were a greater or lesser scaup, and she was happy to show me that it was a Greater Scaup, spreading a wing so I could see that the white extended into the primary feathers. Normally it’s the head shape I’d need to see to make that identification from a distance, so it was interesting to learn this extra tidbit. I asked how they could tell when a dark bird like this was actually clean, and she showed me how they use cotton balls or swabs to dab onto an area — if there’s oil, it will show up on the white cotton.

Cindy returned after a while with a new job for us; we were sent to the outdoor tents where we’d be helping by filling syringes with pedialyte. The staff set up several pitchers and a cheat sheet for what they needed…20 syringes filled to 40cc, 45 syringes filled to 50cc, etc. The birds here were still drying, kept in large plywood bins with net flooring, covered with sheets. During this time I also helped fill some feeding hoppers with cut-up fish, so the birds could begin feeding themselves. When we finished setting up the feeding, the tubing began.

While tube feeding the birds, the staff checked each one for signs of emaciation or other problems. A bird that’s too skinny might need to be removed from the bin for extra care, or it might need a “donut”. A donut is rubber padding that’s taped to the bird in a sort of a “U” shape around its keel (its breast bone)…birds that spend all their time on the water can develop sores if they’re kept on dry land, because of the pressure it puts on the keel. The donut keeps the pressure off the keel so the bird can rest more comfortably. It’s the same idea as a donut that a human might use after hemorrhoid surgery.

I didn’t get to hold or help tube directly, which was a little disappointing, but did get to help shoo Surf Scoters over to the side of the box so the tube feeding people could scoop them up, and then helped keep the fed birds separated from the other birds in that bin that were left to feed.

All too quickly it was time to make the long drive home to Sebastopol. I found Ali, who I’d carpooled with, doing dishes in the “oiled kitchen”, and we gathered our things and signed out. On the way to the car, I learned that Ali had been doing dishes the entire time, and hadn’t even seen a bird (and here I was feeling disappointed about handling! I felt about two feet tall.) So we turned around and I said we should see if she could peek into the pools, like I had done last time. On our way back in, Cindy saw us and asked if we were looking for someone. I asked if Ali could peek into a pool, having not seen a bird, and she very helpfully showed us to the media pool — a pool set up for just this kind of situation, where the media or volunteers could get a good look at birds that were ready for release without disturbing birds who still needed more recovery.

The media pool was full of bouyant Eared Grebes (I think…could have been horned), busily surfing the surface of the water and chittering to each other in a lively way. It was a great way to end the evening, and even better to learn that the first releases of birds was happening the next day.