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machineguts wrote:
Hey Jen, where are you going to auction the art to donate? I’d love to do this as well!
Probably at AC, since I will be attending at the end of June. eBay charity auctions are such a huge pain in the rump and the exposure there is crappy anyhow that I just don’t bother anymore with them. Too much red tape, and I’ve had a bad experience. These days I prefer to sell it direct so that I know the money I have in hand goes to the group I’m donating to. 🙂
_______________________________________________If these photos make you angry, consider writing to your Representative to urge them to push forward for clean (not oil based) energy. It won’t happen overnight and it’s a complicated process but it has to move forward. As it is, we’re wreckin’ the joint. 🙁 All of us play the oil game and we all have to push forward, not just our leaders.
Volunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comI will be getting up at 4:30 tomorrow to go to Venice and work at the Fort Jackson facility run by Tri-state bird rescue. I will try to take some pictures, but BP is running the show and I might not be allowed. I had to take a BP hazmat course and am required tp follow BP instructions and rules while I am there. I even have to have a photo ID. They are keeping media out!
I should be working directly with oiled and recovering birds. I went to this facility with the Frigate bird on May 7th and it has taken me this long to get to be a volunteer, even though I have 10 years wildlife rehab experience and I am a Nurse Practitioner for the last 13 years and a Nurse for 17 years. I have to be there to take a safety course at 8 am and it is a 3 hour drive for me.
Here are some interesting links….this is the facility that I will be volunteering at. Tri-state Bird Rescue and IBRCC are both involved.
http://www.tristatebird.org/
http://www.ibrrc.org/And here are the HORRIFIC NUMBERS OF CASUALTIES!!! Pdf break down of the animals rescued and the dead animals……please look at this!!!
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/posted/2931/FWNumbers_WEB_28May_Final.571947.pdf
I will keep you updated! But this is MUCH WORSE that they are saying. Hopefully, I will have some pictures tomorrow late. Wish me luck!
That’s just terrible :(, heard something on the news about the other day during lunch.. saying how theyre trying to prevent it from it getting into the ocean and i couldnt help but think “its already in the ocean you idiots…gulf or no gulf its still part of a Large body of water…and its still killing hundreds of animals….”
keschete,
I am working on getting some money together to donate (though I know that BP is supposed to be taking care of all this, I still support the rescue groups). Can you recommend which group to donate to? Right now I can only afford to donate once. 🙁
I’m really devastated that the spill is doomed to leak until August at the earliest when they get the relief well drilled. How terrible. There aren’t enough words to show how sad this makes me.
Volunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comJennifer wrote:keschete,
I am working on getting some money together to donate (though I know that BP is supposed to be taking care of all this, I still support the rescue groups). Can you recommend which group to donate to? Right now I can only afford to donate once. 🙁
I’m really devastated that the spill is doomed to leak until August at the earliest when they get the relief well drilled. How terrible. There aren’t enough words to show how sad this makes me.
If you would like to donate, here are my suggestions.
For the people affected…. Catholic Charities. They have been better at helping the people here through all sorts of disasters than any other group. http://www.ccano.org/
For the animals, then there are two main organizations working on the spill. They are equally involved.
IBRRC http://www.ibrrc.org/gulf-oil-spill-birds-treated-numbers-2010.html
Tri-State Bird Rescue http://www.tristatebird.org/The Audubon Society has also been very instrumental in getting the initial plans organized and they are the first ones to call me. http://www.audubon.org/
All of the above organizations, I have personally either worked with or seen in action and they are all charities that will use the money in the best way and not waste it. The Tri-State and IBRRC people are the ones that I am working with now at Fort Jackson and here is a little description of how my first day went:
Here is how my first day went.
I got up at 5 am Saturday and drove to Venice, Fort Jackson. I had to get an ID badge made and go through a bunch of security. Show proof of my ID and BP oil training. Then I had an orientation and safety meeting. There are hot and cold zones in the building. Hot zones are oil contaminated areas, kind of like a surgery area in a hospital. You have to wear all the safety equipment. Cold zones are non oiled areas.
So certain people deal with oiled birds and washing, ICU and critical birds and then the rest of us deal with the non oiled and recovering birds. You can not take pictures and security is tight, most volunteers and employees live at the site. They have a large trailer as a bunk house. We work 12 hour shifts. The paid workers work 14 days on and 24 hours off. Yes, that is right! The Tri-State and IBRRC people are working more than full time!
So after a bird is clean (non oiled) they go to a drying room with cages and dog hair dryers…the room is about 100 degrees and you have to crawl in the cages and catch and hold the birds so your partner can take their temps every 15 minutes. So for a big Gannet or Pelican it takes two people to get a rectal temp. The birds are not happy, and the Gannets are smart and have sharp beaks. So we have to wear protective gloves and eye wear.
It is hot in the drying room and stepping back out into 80 degrees feels like it is cool. This drying room is a small walled off room in a large warehouse with no AC. So it is about 80 degrees with almost 100% humidity in the coolest parts of the building.
Once a bird gets up to temperature (103 to 108 degrees) and is dry then they go in an indoor pen for a period of time to preen and waterproof their feathers, from there they go outside. They are all monitored closely, because if their feathers are not water proofed then they will get water logged in the outdoor pools. Some birds have to come back in for more warming and tube feedings. I learned very quickly how to spot a distressed gannet.
It is really interesting and there were only about 40 birds while I was there, but for the team of 8 of us, we never stopped for 12 hours. It is gruelling, exhausting, hot work. But, I really enjoyed it and I felt like I had experience enough that I could be of use. By the end of my first day, I felt like a professional Northern Gannet wrangler.
I didn’t fool with any Pelicans, they are twice as large as the Gannets. I fell in love with the Gannets. They were all immature birds, mottled black and white with striking blue eyes and blue eyelids. They are wicked with their beaks! Many others like the Pelicans better. But the Gannets are so striking.
I also helped in the aviary for gulls and other wader birds, feeding, weighing, tubing, cleaning dead fish out of the muddy floor and pools. The cutest little bird that I have every seen is a Least Bittern. He was about a foot tall and looked like a rust colored cattle egret. In fact he got in a squabble with a cattle egret while I was in the cage. He won. He was really cute and if you watch CNN tonight Anderson Cooper 360 you can see the Least Bittern when he was brought in. He really has a big boy attitude for such a little bird!
I go back this Friday for another 12 hour shift. No pictures due to security, but many of the birds can be see on the news shows. I will do an update next weekend.
Thank You Everyone for reading and for all the positive response! Kaya
Thanks for describing your experience! 🙂 It sounds like an incredible job (way to burn calories, too! 😆 )
Thank you for the in-depth description! I wonder why they don’t allow photographs?
Also I have been curious- after the birds are cleaned, preened and ready for release, where do they get released? I’d be so worried about them getting oiled again; is that just a risk you have to take?
(least bitterns are AMAZING)Volunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comThank you for describing your personal experience — I had no idea that these are the working conditions for those who are currently working to save birds affected by the spill. 😮
I’ll have a look at these charities as well, that was very helpful. :yes:Jennifer wrote:Thank you for the in-depth description! I wonder why they don’t allow photographs?
Also I have been curious- after the birds are cleaned, preened and ready for release, where do they get released? I’d be so worried about them getting oiled again; is that just a risk you have to take?
(least bitterns are AMAZING)That’s what I was wondering too.
Jennifer wrote:Thank you for the in-depth description! I wonder why they don’t allow photographs?
Also I have been curious- after the birds are cleaned, preened and ready for release, where do they get released? I’d be so worried about them getting oiled again; is that just a risk you have to take?
(least bitterns are AMAZING)They have 1 hour a day for media. BP is paying for the clean up and the site and birds are considered evidence. Especially dead birds. They keep the dead birds in a refrigerated truck.
WIth the legalities and already pending law suits, well you get the idea.
Many of the egrets and such get released inland and the Pelicans and Gannets are going to the East Coast of Florida. SO they should be out of harms way.
Here is a video that shows the facility and what is going on…
IBRRC released this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQSubToXKDo&playnext_from=TL&videos=c2zEtaae2JA
I wanted to share these photos we shot back two months ago in the back yard of a beautiful home my husband is helping to build.It is the “back bay”of Ocean Springs,Ms..The oil is managing to creep in now,even with the help from the mighty Mississippi River slowing it down slightly.This is what it looked like in April,2010.We shall see in six months.
These little guys are Nutrias,many lived here in harmony with us,swimming around,having a ball,catching food and raising their young the way Nature intended….have all disappeared completely. 🙁
Are we next??…..Every act matters.No matter how small💞
(Wanted......Brimstone Lap)
Male Hearth....one day🤞Dream on.If anyone is interested,there is a streaming live broadcast from here[Miss./Alabama] on wlox.com at 7pm,central time,this evening about the oil spill and some of the real facts about it and the impact on the entire Gulf Coast region.Please watch it if you can.The better educated we are about a subject,especially something like this,the better place the world can become by our enlightenment.Thank you. :yes:
Every act matters.No matter how small💞
(Wanted......Brimstone Lap)
Male Hearth....one day🤞Dream on.
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