We have received a great response from our request for Sea Bird Patrol Team volunteers. So much so that we have decided to offer another training date for those that were unable to attend the March 28th session. Here is the info on this additional opportunity.
Sea Bird Patrol Training Meeting
April 8, 2015 9AM
2601 Christopher Square
April 8, 2015 9AM
2601 Christopher Square
Galveston, TX
If you already registered for the March date you DO NOT need to re-register this time.
If you have NOT already registered and are interested in becoming part of the Sea Bird Patrol, CLICK HERE and fill out the information sharing as much availability as possible. You will receive a confirmation email for the April 8th training date.
T Shirts have been made to recognize in our efforts in the field and this meeting will answer any questions you may have about patrols or handling birds.
Following is a description of the Sea Bird Patrol:
The Sea Bird Patrol will play a large role in locating these sick and injured birds and getting them the medical care they need in a safe manner without risk to the volunteer or wildlife. Volunteering for Sea Bird Patrols would involve you signing up for a weekly commitment to adopt a site where sea bird have been showing up. The top two components of the Sea Bird Patrol are: As you stop by your designated area (or areas) we will ask you to look and report seabirds that may be entangled in fishing line or debris, sick, or otherwise injured for collect and transportation to a wildlife rehabilitator AND doing a small clean-up for this spot as needed.
For reporting sea birds: Our goal is to have a different Sea Bird Patroller looking at these hot spots one day a week so the areas are patrolled several times a week (or daily if we have enough volunteers). If we can spot these birds in time they can be saved. These volunteers at a minimum will report a bird needing to be transported to a Wildlife Rehabilitator for care by reporting these birds to Galveston County Animal Control for capture and transportation which may require you to wait until Animal Control arrives. Depending on your personal comfort level, we can train you to net the birds and safely transport these birds to our Galveston Wildlife Rehabilitator or the Houston Wildlife Rehabilitator and supply you with the necessary items to accomplish this.
For small clean-ups: Trash plays a huge role in the entanglement of wildlife, particularly for these patrol areas. The patrol site you are designated will need to be monitored for trash and require some clean up depending on various factors such as large rain/storm events (washing up debris), holiday weekend or high traffic use, and the like. We will supply you with the tools necessary to do a small clean up when needed, however in the event that the debris or trash load is more than can be handled by one person- Audubon Texas will organize a larger clean up event to address the overflow and keep these areas manageable for one person to monitor weekly or daily. Our long term goal is to organize larger clean-up events for each of these hot spots so that trash stays manageable for sea bird patrollers to monitor weekly.
Kari Howard, Audubon Coastal Associate
4702 Hwy 146 North
Texas City, Tx 77590
Cell: 409-223-4777
