Jennifer Hanna volunteers with 91做厙 as a bird transport liaison. Photo courtesy Jennifer Hanna |
When the oil spill began, Jennifer Hanna was one of the thousands of people that went online and signed up with 91做厙 as a volunteer. Im an animal lover, and I figured that they needed local volunteers that they wouldnt have to put up in hotels or find housing for, says Hanna, who owns the New Orleans restaurant Sucre with her husband. She was called up within a week or so, and ever since then has been making the hour and fifteen minute drive to Delta Marina in Empire, Louisiana, two to four days a week to transfer oiled birds from boats to the trucks that carry them to be cleaned. 91做厙 spoke with Hanna this week as she was waiting out a rainstorm, taking cover under an awning with fishermen and bird rescuers who would resume searching for more oiled birds as soon as the weather cleared.
Whats a typical day like for you?
The boats go out at 9 or 9:30 in the morning, and I get here at a quarter to 10. I call the coordinators to let them know Im here, then I wait. I flag down the boats that have birdstheyre typically flat boats with a canopy that keep the birds shaded, and you look for the bird cages. They pull up, hand me the crates, and I make sure that they have the coordinates of where they found the birds and the name of whoever captured them. The majority of the time theyre brown pelicanstheyre really trying to save them because they were an endangered species.
This pelican was washed in four specialized tubs, each containing a different concentration of Dawn detergent. Photo by Kim Hubbard/91做厙 Magazine |
A crate will have up to three birds in it. I carry it to the truck; if it isnt there, I carry it to a shaded area and Ill call Beth (a bird rescue coordinator) and let her know that we have birds here. We just try to keep the birds calm, theyre so traumatized as it is. We try to not let everybody come up and stare at them. We load them up in the truck and they take them away to get washed.
How many birds do you transport a day?
For the first couple of weeks we had 20-40 birds a day coming in. Its drastically decreased over the last two weeks here. Its slowed down to maybe two birds a day. You just hope theyre catching all the birds they can.
Has anything about the birds surprised you?
Something that really took me aback at first was that I had no idea that pelicans have all different eye colors, like people. These pelicans come in and they stare at you with these bright blue eyes. And then another will have green eyes, and another one brown eyes. I expected them all to have brown eyes. But you see these birds, especially the ones with extremely expressive blue eyes, and theyre so beautiful, and theyre drenched in oil.
How do you deal with handling these traumatized birds?
I came in and was all excited and nervous at the same time. And then these really, really oily birds started coming in, and thats so heartbreaking. Some of them
An oiled brown pelican refuses to eat the offered capelin. Photo by Kim Hubbard/91做厙 Magazine |
are completely covered and look like theyre in a puddle of oil in the crate. It really is heartbreaking. You kind of have to put yourself in a different place and say, Ok, Im not going to cry about this. For the first two days I had to tell myself, You can do this. Just take birds and get them where they need to go and keep them as calm as possible. And as cool as possible, because with the heat index down here it can get up to like 115 degrees, and theyre covered in oil. You have to think, Cmon, lets get this done.
At the end of day when you go home, its just so overwhelming. But you also feel so good because youre a part of something thats so much bigger than you. Its completely overwhelming but gratifying at the same time. I have a great job, but I feel like its important to do this on my days off, and I enjoy it. Ive gotten to know the different fishermen, and this kind of feels like home. Ill help until they dont need me any more.
For more photos of oiled birds being cleaned, . For an interview with 91做厙's Melanie Driscoll about mobilizing thousands of volunteers, . And .
