We work with injured and disabled seabirds to

rectify their misadventures with mankind.

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Bagged Pelican

You may not think that the plastic grocery bag that you just threw away can kill, but this pelican inadvertently got his head stuck in one. Unfortunately we couldn't catch him before he flew off so we couldn't help him. Please help out by retrieving any plastic grocery bags from the street or in the water.

Snagged Wing

Monofilament line carelessly tossed out while fishing can also kill. Even a small amount can trap a bird and cause death and damage. This bird caught his wing on a small bit of line and spent two weeks in recovery.

Hung Cormorant

This Cormorant caught a bit of line on his foot, which ultimately snagged on a tree limb, where he eventually died. Please recycle your monofilament line, and don't, under any circumstances, cut your line if a bird catches on. 

Balloon

Even small things like a balloon you let go of can cause trouble. This Gannet got the string wrapped around his beak and starved to death.

Anhinga with Line around Beak

Some we catch before it kills them. This Anhinga we found before the line wrapped around his beak killed him.

The Hazards of Six-Pack Rings

Cormorant with six-pack ring around its neck. Please, before you dispose of your six-pack rings, cut them into pieces.  

Sometimes, Nature Plays its Own Role

It was 7a.m. in another beautiful day in paradise. A call came into the center from a woman living in Tampa, whose back yard backs up to a pond on a golf course. Looking out her kitchen window, she watched what she perceived as strange behavior for a stork she usually watched feed in the pond everyday. As she walked to the pond's edge, she watched the stork struggling to reach the shore to no avail, slowly going under the water. She thought maybe he caught his foot on a log or rock; however, the more he struggled, the deeper he got. She took action and grabbed his bill and started to tug gently at first to free the bird's foot. After some gentle tugging and the bird still not being freed, she gave a gentle yank. With that, she thought she could feel the foot being freed. Then to her surprise, the foot came to the surface of the water with a turtle attached to it. Dragging the weakened bird to the shoreline she tried to pry the turtle's mouth open. No success! Pulling the exhausted bird further on the grassy area, she ran to her garage and got a hammer. Striking the turtle, but not injuring him, he let go of the foot and swam away.

The woman and I made arrangements to meet half way to save time because the foot was bleeding very badly. Before I left I notified our vets of the pending emergency operation they would have to start their day with. I picked up the bird and drove him directly to the vet, where on examination we could see the skin on all digits had been torn back and one of his digits was fractured. Dr. Eldridge and Dr. Bingham made sewing the skin in place and putting a pin in the broken toe look easy. Without their expertise, the bird would not have made it. We are proud to say that after 8 weeks of rehab we released the stork back to the same pond his adventure started.

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