Near the mouth of the Mississippi River, oil soaked pelicans, one-by one, are getting cleaned up, fed, and returned to the wild. A volunteer from Sonoma County explains the process.

As Executive Director of the Sonoma County Bird Rescue Center, Doris Duncan (seen below in the process of hosing down an oily pelican in Louisiana) has considerable experience working with large seabirds. She says the same is true of everyone at the cleaning facility that was hastily erected at the historic site of Fort Jackson.

The majority of the rescued birds are large brown pelicans, such as those seen in this holding pen. Duncan says they are fed and protected while awaiting their turn to be cleaned.

The formerly endangered California Brown Pelican appears to be facing some new challenges this winter, as hundreds of the birds have been taken to bird rescue facilities from here to Long Beach.

Paul Kelway, a spokesman for the International Bird Rescue Research Center, says that after several days of feeding and cleaning, many of the bedraggled birds have been successful released into the wild again.

The IBRRC website maintains updated counts of the pelicans that have successfully been treated and released.

Despite their name, California Brown Pelicans can also be gray, white or combinations of all three colors. Nor is their natural range confined to the Golden State. In fact, as Paul Kelway explains, they migrate up and down much of the Pacific coast, which is part of the reason they’ve had problems recently.

These birds, the smallest of all pelican species, were placed on the Endangered Species list because exposure to DDT resulted in thinner shells for their eggs, which led to fewer birds hatching, and reduced birth rates. Since the pesticide was banned, the pelican population has been gradually rebounding. The group seen at right are regaining their strength at the IBRRC facility in Cordelia, near Fairfield.

The sounds of the natural world are changing, and not for the better. Bernie Krause (left)  has tapes that document that trend.

While Krause has been recording and tracking the changes in aural environments around the world over the past several decades for his business, Wild Sanctuary, he has also been observing the concurrent changes in the soundscape around his Glen Ellen home. And he’s been astonished by what he’s found.

Just as the soundscapes have been changing over time, so has the recording equipment Krause uses. Digitization, he says, has made his professional life much easier.