Hi Mike and everyone,



Echoing Mike's advice, attempting to help birds is best left to trained personnel.? Another thing to remember is that birds can be dangerous to people attempting to 'help' them - they are unable to discern what your intentions are and most likely view you as a predator.? Birds with long bills, loons in particular, are very adept at using those sharp bills as weapons (captured and banded loons frequently have scars from stab wounds inflicted by other loons).? Long-billed birds may also aim for the eyes of a predator (or well-meaning human) when attempting to defend themselves.? This could have a very unhappy ending for the rescuer.? I once had a small Pied-billed Grebe break skin on my finger when I was helping to relocate it to a nearby pond after it had apparently attempted to land on a rain-slick asphalt parking lot that it mistook for a pond at night.?



John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net

www.tubbsphoto.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Patterson" <celata at pacifier.com>
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2009 6:57:03 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Seasbird wreck

It is a natural inclination, when we see birds on the beach, to
want to "help" them and many of the birds coming in with this recent
wreck do need help. ?But many of them don't.

It is not unusual to see Red-throated Loons on the beach resting,
preening, trying to dry out a bit. ?If you look a Tyler's very
excellent pictures, you'll notice that many of these birds are alert,
bright-eyed and (considering the circumstances) fairly dry.

I have been helping out with the processing at the North Coast Rehab
Center in Astoria where most of these birds are being taken. ?They are
at capacity and had to send about 250 birds to other facilities. ?Loons
are especially problematic for rehabbers. ?They don't take food well.
Chasing them down so they can be put in a box and taken somewhere else
may not be in their best interest.

Wanting to help is a good thing, but the place to start is at the rehab
centers with the birds that are already there. ?Let the folks at these
centers have control of the volume and if they send you out to do a
beach sweep: think triage.

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
Things juvenal
http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/northcoastdiaries/11935/

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