Creek Running North

I’m going to go look at Miller-Knox Shoreline on my way out of town. If any locals have time to go look around Point Molate (head out to the Richmond Bridge and exit at the last minute: the road will take you around the point and to the seedy little Richmond Yacht Club) and the west shore of Point Pinole today, it’d be good.

From Alison Kent at the Oiled Wildlife Care Network:

Dear Birders,

You’ve no doubt seen and heard about the impact the SF Bay Oil Spill is having on birds and marine mammals. Members of the public have been generously calling in birds and asking how to volunteer.

I’d like to issue a special plea for birders please to try and get to “places less travelled” in the Bay Area where you know there to be birds. We got over 40 calls yesterday reporting one oiled surf scoter at Crissy Fields; one call reporting 40 oiled clapper rails in Anderson Marsh would really help sort out rescue triage.

The sooner, the better. The faster we can get these birds stabilized and washed, the higher their chances of recovery and survival.

Calls from the general public wanting to volunteer outnumbered bird reports yesterday by about 5-1. Volunteer opportunities for untrained members of the public are going to be very limited over the next few days but here’s a critical one: please make a special effort to look for oiled birds in places where the general public doesn’t go. Don’t approach or touch the birds but call 877-823-6926 and provide the location (be very specific, GPS coordinates are great), the species, number of birds seen, whether dead or alive, and percentage of oiling. Please leave your name and a contact phone number. We are inundated and most of my veterinary and administrative coworkers have left Davis; of the ones of us still here who are answering this number, I’m the only one who’s likely to know what a clapper rail is, so please be patient if you get through to a live person.

Under no circumstances should people touch or approach an oiled animal unless they have HAZWOPR training and are properly equipped. If you see someone doing this, please remind them that this is toxic material.

Please distribute this information widely to the birding community, particularly those located in the Bay Area. I apologize in advance for inevitable cross-posting. But time is of the essence here.

Many thanks.
Alison Kent
Davis, California
Oiled Wildlife Care Network
Wildlife Health Center
(530) 752-3809
To Report an Oiled Bird: (877) 823-6926