Quack, uh, er, chirp?

Well, as my little contribution to the oil slick situation, I did my part to try to save a little bird today.

I spotted the bird in the marina, what I believe is called Gashouse Cove across from Safeway in the Marina District. It was paddling along, seemingly o.k., but I decided to watch it for awhile. Sure enough, it was pulling at its feathers quite a bit, and when it arched up to try to ruffle its feathers, it was quite obvious that the feathers were all stuck together with the spilled fuel oil.

Unfortunately, I didn't have in my phone the email with the oiled bird hotline, so I walked over to the marine fuel attendant who told me to call the Coast Guard or City. I called the City's 311 number. They told me they were taking a list of bird reportings so the people could consolidate their runs.

The bird kept paddling close to the rocks around the edge of the marina. Finally, it managed to hop up on some rocks and try to clean itself and rest. Unfortunately, a seagull saw it struggling and decided to come over and see if it could have the small bird for dinner ! The bird had enough strength to convince the seagull not to mess with it, and it jumped back in the water. The seagull didn't seem to mess with it in the water, though another seagull who spotted it zeroed in again and chased it around a boat.

When it looked like the bird was going to be dinner for a seagull, I called the City again. They said, "oh, if it's on the rocks, animal control can get it." So I talked to animal control, who said they'd be around, but it might take awhile.

So I watched the bird for about an hour. Finally, at one point, I lost sight of it, but knew where I saw it last, and thought it might be on the rocks. I walked to the other end, and there was animal control. Turns out another guy in a car had caught a bird and was handing it over. Then the animal control guy came down and spotted my oiled friend on the rocks. He called a few agile co-workers in, and they easily netted the bird, and took it in for de-oiling.

They say it was a grebe, though the one I saw is much smaller than the one in this picture. Maybe because of its oil coating !