March 3, 2011…At The Gulf Coast

The hoot of an owl in the woods across from the bay caused me to get motivated this morning. I got ready and headed to the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge for my first beach check.

As I turned onto Mobile Street, the ariel dance of two ospreys riding the high winds caused me to stop and watch their amazing flight. Further down the narrow road, tall, dried rushes rattled in the wind. Their chattering called me to my task today.

After I parked, I walked down the boardwalk toward the beach. Before I reached the shoreline, I could smell an occasional whiff of crude oil. Every time the waves are high, sunken oil gets loosened from the bottom and washes ashore.

The oil shelf that I documented in January is still present at the refuge. Sand has continued to cover it but it is obviously there. Workers were present as well, most doing a great job of digging up buried oil. I met two workers strolling with their pick-up nets, smoking cigarettes and deep in conversation–totally oblivious of the tar balls washing up on the beach. There were two crews of about eight people, supervisors, and the two women whose job appeared to be simply smoking and strolling.

The really encouraging thing at the wildlife refuge was a flock of about 25 sanderlings foraging along the tideline. I have seen very few birds there the past several visits so this was a really positive change. I also saw about eight pelicans flying offshore, two herring gulls, two ring-billed gulls, and one cormorant (flying offshore).

I noticed a gull eating one of the many crabs washed onshore. I was disappointed to see more dead crabs and crab pieces lining the beach. As I stood watching the gull ingest the crustacean, I was reminded how toxins travel throughout the food chain, throughout the web of life. None of us are immune.

My nicest surprise of the day came in the form of a US Fish and Wildlife Service employee I met at Fort Morgan. He was a great source of information about the efforts the USFWS is putting forth to ensure the protection of wildlife, especially endangered species such as the piping plovers that nest along the Gulf Coast. It made my heart lighten to know that tremendous efforts to coordinate between the USFWS and the cleanup crews are happening every day. These Wildlife Resource Technicians advise the cleanup workers, supervise the work area to keep them from nest sites and, if they are all as positive as David, provide a wonderful example in cooperation and patience.

One especially exciting observation at Ft. Morgan was the reappearance of ghost crabs. They have just started to show up again, since the spill, over the past two weeks according to the biologist I spoke with. GO GHOST CRABS!!!

After talking with the USFWS employee, I walked back to the beach access entry point and sat on the beach, enjoying pelicans and other birds interacting with the environment. After sitting for maybe ten minutes, a small group of bottlenose dolphins swam up just offshore. A large dolphin did a tail slap, some played around swimming pelicans, and then they were gone. There was one mother and baby in the group. The total number in this group has diminished since last summer.

The wind and waves were impressive on the Gulf beaches and Ft. Morgan was no exception. Fist-sized tar balls were washing up on the bay side as I walked along the shore, stirred from their slumber along the bottom.

It was good to see cleanup crews at each of the four beaches I visited today. Most were working by hand-cleaning the beaches. One area (Mobile St. access at Bon Secour NWR), had two tractors working with surface sifters…but I’m not sure that does much except take a few tar balls and grind the rest into micro-fine hydrocarbon globs.

Alabama Point, near the Florida line, looked good today. There was a variety of birds present and actively foraging. Johnson Beach, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, looked good as well. Of course all beaches have varying amounts of tar in the form of balls or, in the case of the Mobile Street access of the wildlife refuge, a very large shelf of mostly-buried oil on shore. And there is definitely offshore oil that gets regurgitated by the Gulf when the wind and waves are high.

The Gulf Coast is a place of immense beauty with an intensity that is so great at times, I have to just sit and breathe it in. Overall there is progress being made and it appears that organization between agencies, at least on clean-up sites, is better.

I still saw no live coquina shells in the tidal zone and this greatly concerns me since they are a staple of many birds. I have not seen these shells since the oil started coming onshore last year. Another concern I had today was for the abnormally large number of bird feathers, of various species, scattered along the beach at the wildlife refuge. I have never seen so many feathers at one location.

On my way back from the beaches I usually stop by a special place in Gulf State Park where a resident great blue heron lives. I discovered, in January, he has a severely broken/twisted toe and it appears that feeding is relatively easy at this spillway. He provides a sort of balm to me so I want to publicly thank him for accepting me into his realm and spending a few moments of his day in the presence of this grateful human.