The Dredging of Port Hueneme Harbor - PART I

It's been an interesting few weeks walking the shores of Port Hueneme and seeing this whole dredging operation play out. At first I thought, "This must be some kind of environmental nightmare." But I have since come to the opinion that the dredging thing has very little impact on the wildlife, and that the environmental repercussions are only temporary. In fact, as I have observed the seabirds' reaction to it all, it seems they rather enjoy it.

During that week in January when the Santa Ana winds faced down our balmy, offshore breezes, the whole beach was transformed into a desert, which just happened to have an ocean next to it.

I was walking along the lonely shore, saying outloud to myself, "Where are all the birds?" But as I continued to patrol the beach, I happened upon their gathering place, just beyond the dredge outpouring source. "Of course," I replied to myself, "they're all here at the local swimming hole, where else?"

These birds were having a field day, and it almost made me want to don my bathing suit and jump in. (I said, almost.)

I do wonder what's contained in those oodles of blobs dotting the shore following the siphoning of gobbledygook from the bottom of the harbor through hundreds of feet of metal piping.

So, I took a closer look by taking this photograph:

When I step on these things, they squoosh like modeling clay, and if they haven't dried out yet, they slick like oil. It's as if the combined ingredients of nature's seabottom and spews of incoming ships have created some kind of beach cookie dough, a perfectly delectable delight for seabirds. The Western Sandpiper below is apparantly on a diet - a small portion:

After a time, these cookie dough blobs eventually dissolve into the sand and become part of the ever-continuing process of earth re-cleansing herself.

Stay tuned for The Dredging of Port Hueneme Harbor - PART II

Dog owners happy-to-disobey beach rules and threaten seabirds

"Oh, isn't it so cute the way my dog chases the birds?"

See Spot run wild and free! (Free as a bird?)

I understand, BUT... did you know?

Dogs and humans can be the deciding factor on whether an injured, tired or distressed bird lives or dies. And it's against the rules to bring your animals onto Port Hueneme beach.

I post the rules here. First, in English:

#3007 Dogs Must Be on a Continuously-Held Leash
#4008 No Animals on Sand (Seaward side of Pathways)

Then in Spanish:

#3007 Se Requiere Perros en Correa Agarrada en Mano
#4008 No se Permiten Animales en la Arena (Paseo-lado de la Playa)

I found myself witnessing a pelican's nightmare tonight when I strolled the beach at sunset. I am posting my experience as an illustration of my point.

When I first spotted the tired guy, he was trying to negotiate the high waves.

He was definitely coming in.

Once he got to shore, I made a wide girth around him to take this shot:

In the next photo, you can see where he stood in comparison to Port Hueneme Pier in the background:

I stood by and kept an eye on him. And then I saw the man and woman with their two little dogs. I thought, "Well, that's cool. At least they're keeping them on a leash." But then they were getting awfully close to the pelican, and I was starting to get concerned.

As I stood in view and took this photo, it had not been in my wildest imagination that this man would actually unleash his dogs right there where the tired pelican rested on shore. What the... ? And the two little dogs ran straight for him. I screamed, "No. No!!" But it was too late. The pelican did what all tired birds do when threatened, they go back into the sea. And he was having a hard time. He was too tired to fly, and he wasn't swimming either, more like just floating in the surf, his wings falling limp on both sides. He was just really tired, and I knew it. I was so angry at the stupid dog owners!

But despite this inconsiderate act, the little guy came back to shore, and walked slowly up the beach until he got to a safe resting place, by all the leftover dredge from the harbor (which I will be posting about soon). I also had to tell a group of boys with fishing poles to stay clear of the pelican. If he went back into the water again, I didn't think his chances would be good.

There are many threats to the wildlife in this huge seaport. As the ship sailed out of port, I sent a little energy to the pelican.

I will return to check on him first thing in the morning. Rest well, little guy.

And please, please, proud dog owners, if you're going to break the beach rules, do so with caution and consideration of these precious wild creatures.

There is also disturbing pelican news from the International Bird Rescue Research Center. (What's causing fatigued pelicans to drop from the sky?)

The cormorants came back

Happy New Year to humans and birds alike.

In my previous post (Dec 30), I said I would return to the beach the following morning with my camera, because I thought I had seen a pair of cormorants diving for fish beyond the breakers that day. And I hadn't taken my camera with me. I did return early the next morning, camera hanging over my shoulder, and there they were; the cormorants had come again.

I feel a kinship with these birds now, as well as the grebes.

Something had caught my eye through the viewfinder after I had found the pair of cormorants again. I snapped a photo of what I thought was a pelican landing, judging by the large wingspan. But when I looked out in the water, there were now three cormorants. I knew the third had just joined the other two. According to the book, "Introduction to Birds of the Southern California Coast," cormorants fly with rapid wing beats and neck extended. And when they hit the water, they skid to a halt. I think I captured this skidding-to-a-halt thing here.

I tried to determine what kind of cormorants these were, as I knew they were the same as my cormorant I had lost.

However, I am limited by my point-and-shoot Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd camera. Eventually, I'd like to upgrade to the Finepix S100fs, for those sharper images and optical zoom. I'd like to upgrade myself to advanced amateur photographer, too. The photo below is the closest in distance I could get with my current zoom. By this photo, I determined that all the cormorants I had seen were Brandt's Cormorants, and not the Double-crested or Pelagic cormorants.

The Brandt's Cormorants are the most common cormorant in the Southern California Bight. (See more cormorant photos in my December posts.)

The oil-soaked cormorant died in the water

It's been two weeks since my last post, but it's not because there wasn't something to talk about; it's because I haven't had the words to describe the sadness I felt when, three days after I had spotted the cormorant on shore, two days after I had seen him again in the water near Port Hueneme Pier, I found him dead on the beach. I had missed a day in between because there had been a rainstorm. More than likely, he died of hypothermia. It was a lot for me to take in, the grief hard to bear, knowing I could have saved him if I had known he was in trouble. I should have made my plan, and executed a rescue. I'm so sad about the bird. He really was a magnificent creature.

I took his picture because the sorrow was important. It will always be important. The two bird deaths here in Port Hueneme happened as a result of the oil spill 30 miles up the coast--the Santa Barbara County oil spill near Carpinteria on December 7th. I found the oil-soaked grebe on December 10th already dead, and the oil-soaked cormorant died sometime before the morning of December 19th.

I will post again, as there are other things I want to discuss, like the dredging of Port Hueneme Harbor, and the clay-looking oily, rocky blobs left on shore as a result.

But I wanted to leave this post with a little hope:

Today I saw a pair of cormorants diving for fish today out beyond the breakers. I didn't take photos, as I haven't been taking my camera to the beach lately. I will return in the morning to check on them, and bring my camera just in case. But from now on, it is my first priority to make sure the birds are okay before snapping photos.

My husband and I rescued a young seagull with a broken wing two weekends ago. I had spotted him on the beach following sunset a couple of days before, and didn't think I could handle the rescue. When I approached him, he would run away--fast. So when we saw him again, my husband helped me corral him. I made the handoff to Liz, who had rescued two other seagulls the same day near Channel Islands Harbor and was taking them to a bird care facility. It was Liz who told me that mine was a young seagull, because he was brown-colored. I didn't have a camera at the time of his rescue, but I did go out the following day and take shots of the different-colored seagulls. I am including two:




All these wild birds deserve to have a clean ocean in which to live.

International Bird Rescue Research Center

Santa Barbara spill update: 3 oiled birds in care

Three live oiled birds are now being treated at the Los Angeles Oiled Bird Care and Education Center in San Pedro. This is OWCN's (Oiled Wildlife Care Network) largest oiled bird response facility in Southern California.

The oil-soaked bird standing on shore was a cormorant

I sought help after my last post, to find out what kind of bird I had seen last Friday standing on Port Hueneme shore. It was a magnificent-looking seabird, except that his body was covered in black oil.

Liz, a volunteer bird rescuer for Wildlife Care of Ventura County, wrote back to me, and identified the bird as a cormorant. She had just rescued one the day before. She said they were a bit more aggressive than the grebes, but that they could still be caught by throwing a towel over them. And unlike the grebes, they usually stand if they come to shore (grebes cannot function or survive on land). It's also not necessary to make a donut-shaped cushion for the cormorant to sit on, like you need to do for the aquatic soft-bellied grebes. Liz cautioned me about the beaks of the cormorants; they have little hooks at the end. I would need to be careful if I were given a second chance to rescue this one, or another cormorant in the future.

Liz also instructed that, once I throw the towel over him, it would be good to try and grab his head out through the towel, so he doesn't wriggle out. And if a bird is oiled, the best thing to do is put them in a box and keep them warm, and get them to someone who knows how to take care of them ASAP. Some oiled birds go straight to Malibu, as the Ventura/Santa Barbara facilities are not as equipped to handle this kind of injury. Liz told me she had also seen a seagull whose body was half black from oil the day she rescued the cormorant. She reiterated my thoughts exactly, "It's so sad what happens to our poor wildlife."

I also received a second confirmation from Anna Reams, Director of Wildlife Care of Ventura County, that this bird was a cormorant. After viewing the photos in my previous blog, she gave me additional information based on how the cormorant was swimming. Anna said that he was definitely covered with oil because he was submerged, and not floating on top of the water; that's a clear indication he is oil-soaked. I was so sorry to hear about that, as I had not known what to look for, even though once he had gotten back into the water, there wasn't anything I could've done. I am still sorry I had not tried to capture him.

The following day I went out to the beach on what I have come to call my daily Bird Watch Beach Patrol (BWBP). I think I spotted the same cormorant, and it seemed like he was still holding on, though he was swimming low in the water. (bird on left)

He was hanging out near the end of the Port Hueneme pier. I climbed the steps and walked out to see him.

I could feel the vibrancy of his spirit. I know that sounds a bit crazy, but sometimes I can read energy, and I was darn sure it was the same cormorant. It was like I recognized his personality.

But that was the last time I saw him. I have looked for him in the past four days, but he hasn't been out there. I will be on the lookout for more of his kind, and I'll know what to do next time I see one of these beautiful birds covered in oil.

An additional side note about catching seabirds: Always get between them and the ocean before approaching them. Then you can chase them up towards the sand, because once they get back in the water, they're almost impossible to catch. They can dive under the water and slip out very easily. *But with an oiled bird especially, going back in the water may mean they will suffer from hypothermia and die. When birds get their feathers soiled, they cannot maintain their body heat, and the water seeps below the outer feathers and soaks the downy ones underneath. They die from being cold. Anna cautioned me that when I see these guys compromised like this on the beach, the best thing to do is to have a plan in my head before I attempt a rescue, because they will use the last bit of their energy to get back into the water. "You will only get one chance," she said.

Thank you Liz and Anna for all your valuable information.

Oil Spill off the coast of Santa Barbara County

On the morning of Sunday, December 7, 2008, the oil spill was reported after platform workers discovered oil had leaked from a finger-sized hole in a pump line. I don't know how many birds were affected in Santa Barbara County, but I found one dead oil-soaked grebe yesterday (December 10th), and another bird--a species I have not seen before--standing on the Port Hueneme shore this morning, soaked in oil. See series of photos below.

This was the same platform that was responsible for an 80,000-barrel spill that killed 3,686 birds in 1969, and that underestimation did not include the birds that had died at sea, or whose carcasses had not been recovered. It was an environmental disaster of gargantuan proportions.
Santa Barbara's 1969 Oil Spill

I am including this photo of the dead grebe I found, because the sadness of even one bird being affected by this kind of petroleum-based mishap is worth acknowledging.

Two days after the spill, congresswoman Lois Capps, representative from the affected district, pledged to work with the Obama administration to protect the coastline from further oil development. She also called the oil spill another "painful reminder that drilling for oil is a dirty and dangerous business."

We have got to look to other fuel sources, and soon. As I walked the Port Hueneme beach (about 30 miles south of Carpinteria) yesterday afternoon and this morning, I could smell petroleum in the air. Maybe it was the incoming and outgoing ships into the only deep sea port between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but it was the first time I had noticed this level of oily pungency in the air. I imagine, though, that all those huge ships floating in and out of the harbor are powered by fossil fuel.

This was the bird I couldn't identify. As I moved closer, he went back out to sea. I thought he was just black-feathered, but on closer inspection of my photographs, it looked to me like this one had oil smeared on his feathers, too.

I wouldn't have been able to catch him, I don't think. He took off for the water as soon as I got near him. I just hope he survived out there. I read in the Malibu Surfside News that any soiling, or even just one drop of oil on a sea bird will compromise its feathers' protective structure and allow wind and water to reach the bird's skin. The article states, "There’s an old wives’ tale that a bird’s feathers are coated with a protective oil which makes water bead. This is not the case. A bird’s feathers are like shingles on a house. They are structured just so and aligned in such a way to protect the bird from the elements."
Here's a link to the article:
Malibu Surfside News: Rescuer Says Latest Oiled Sea Bird Event Points Out Shortcomings

I'm going back out to the beach in the morning, to see if this bird returned.
I'm worried that he will get too cold and die if it stays out to sea.


12-9-08 Oil spill article:
Oil Spill Off California Reminder of Offshore Drilling Danger