Bloggers Unite-For the Birds of the Gulf

Photo of a flock of Terns. South Beach, Chatham, MA-July 2009

Pardon the recent absence from blogging. Work has been intense and add to that lousy weekend weather and birding gets put on the back burner much to my dismay. I have also been caught up with the mess along the gulf coast and the sense of outrage, frustration and sadness that never seems to leave as the oil continues to gush, people continue to suffer and wild life continues struggle to stay alive.

Despite the continuous bad news, I thought I would share with you someone who is down there trying to make a difference for the birds along the gulf. Drew Wheelan has spent countless hours trying to rescue wild life including some nesting Least Terns who are still attempting to nest on the beach despite the chaos that surrounds them with scores of people nearby and oil laden waters that threaten them 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

Drew was doing his usual walk along the beaches- surveying the landscape and looking for birds and had noticed ATV vehicles had driven through the nesting habitat of some Least Terns and miraculously, the recently hatched chicks avoided being run over which allowed him to contact Louisiana Fish and Wild Life for them to set up barriers along the nesting habitat to give these precious chicks a chance at a time when chances for birds are few and far between.

Video taken by Drew of the Least Terns nest and the ATV vehicles that were nearby. This was before he reached out to Fish and Wild life for assistance

Drew went back there last evening and to his horror the chicks were run over despite the efforts by himself and Fish and Wildlife which is an outrage.

Video of what Drew saw when he went back there last night hoping to film a story with a happy ending. Sadly there are not many happy endings along the Gulf.

Some of you may be wondering why I am blogging about this when many of us go to the birding blogs to escape the sad images of the gulf that continues to assault us every time we turn on the TV or scroll the Internet. I too would like to tune out and make this all go away, but I can't due to my sense of outrage and how important I think it is that people know about what is going on there and get a first hand account of those who are there trying to make a difference as there are quite a few Drew's along the gulf doing everything they can to ease the suffering of those who are impacted by it.

I also believe in the power of numbers and the power of the blogasphere and the birding network that has exploded recently with blogs, Facebook, etc. I am sick of feeling helpless and strongly believe we as birders have a responsibility to the birds that give us hours of pleasure and ask nothing of us in return. Drew's story needs to be heard and hasn't had the time to reach out to the traditional media outlets that are out there because he is so busy in rescue attempts, so I am asking fellow bloggers to help out and share his story with their readers.

It doesn't have to be a long winded post like my own obviously, ;-), but just a link to his blog or better yet, post his YouTube Video on your blog so your readers can be introduced to him and what he is doing to help these birds who have so many odds stacked against their survival. If you don't have a blog, I suggest you take a look at his and bookmark it as Drew updates it whenever he has the time and his entries are always moving, informational and not at all censored by BP which is refreshing within itself.

You can also help by donating to the Gulf Coast Recovery Fund which will help Drew and others in this very important task.

Also a link to his interview with Anderson Cooper this week Anderson Cooper Interview

Take care all.