Audubon Texas and the Wildlife Center of Texas are teaming
up on Galveston Island to address the major challenges with injured and sick
seabirds that have been showing up at popular fishing spots and piers around
the island. To date approximately 125 Brown Pelicans have been rescued and
sadly several did not make it. Charli Rohack, the Wildlife Rehabilitator
and Galveston connection to the Wildlife Center of Texas in Houston has an
incredible opportunity for volunteers to help address these issues and possibly
get the birds the help they need to increase their chances of being fully
rehabilitated and release back to the wild!
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.
We have two events
to share which will offer immediate opportunities to assist with this program.
Sea Bird Patrols Meeting & Training:
If you are
interested in becoming part of the Sea Bird Patrol TEAM- a meeting will be
held on March 28th at 2601 Christopher Square, Galveston, TX.
This meeting will answer any questions you may have about patrols and/or
handling birds.
To sign up for Sea Bird Patrol CLICK HERE and
fill out the information sharing as much availability as possible. You will
receive a confirmation email for the March 28th training date.
If you would like
to assist with the larger organized clean-up event, this is our first of many
to come scheduled event.
Clean-up Event:
Saturday March 14th at 9am at Pier 19 near Joe’s Crab Shack.
We currently need 8 people! To sign up for the
clean-up event at Pier 19:
We also appreciate
your efforts to distribute this email to your friends and neighbors around
Galveston County who may want to participate in this program.
Thank you,
Kari
Howard, Audubon Coastal Associate
4702 Hwy 146 North
Texas City, Tx 77590
409-941-9114 ext.104
Cell: 409-223-4777
khoward@audubon.org
www.audubontexas.org
4702 Hwy 146 North
Texas City, Tx 77590
409-941-9114 ext.104
Cell: 409-223-4777
khoward@audubon.org
www.audubontexas.org
