On the morning of August 25th, I chartered a boat to a little island south of Lake Felicity off the Louisiana coast to check out the reports of thousands of dead birds I had been hearing about from other birders. I also wanted to confirm my suspicions from finding dead birds on the roadside and dead fish in the bayou in Pointe-aux-Chenes recently. I watched the sun rise above the horizon as I drove down the long highway to the end of the road and my destination. A crab fisherman, Mr. Verdin, agreed to take me to "THAT" Island....The one I feared to see...But, knew I had to.
With a hoarse voice, Mr. Verdin said hello as we shook hands and made our acquaintance. I placed my camera bag and backpack down into the huge aluminum boat. Then I remembered I forgot my shrimp boots at home...Man... But, I had backup - WADERS! I hopped onto the boat (well, more like sat down and threw my legs over, lol...) and Mr. Verdin started the engine and his workers untied the boat and shoved us off.
Traveling down the bayou to the cut, I noticed how many boats were tied up, not working. Many crabbers and shrimpers and oystermen without incomes to feed and house and clothe their familes. I wondered what would become of them...but, mostly the children. Sadly, they probably will not know their culture like their predecessors did.
Reaching the end of the bayou where BP has taken over the marina, I saw about 50 workers standing on the dock all with the orange life-vests, waiting to be picked up by boats to go out and.... and.... and... DO NOTHING! That's right, nothing! I've witnessed it more times than I can count on two hands, over and over again. Boats just anchor out to pass the time or circle around or tie up to each other and chit-chat! No joke!
After clearing the docks and boats, Mr. Verdin eased the boat into high speed and we headed out of sight into the deep toxic sea with God knows what lurking below it's glassy surface. Soon we hit more open water with a light chop. I could faintly see an island in the distance. Mr. Verdin headed straight for it as I checked my GPS for coordinates, we were right on target...or so I thought anyways. As we approached, I could see birds flying above the marsh grasses which seemed to be a shiny pretty green. The pelicans were hanging out on the point with hundreds of laughing gulls and royal terns. I saw a lot of immature brown pelicans wading in and around the shallow surf. We idled around the island as I tried to figure out whether this was it or not. My GPS was showing other coordinates than what I was given by another birder. It looked like the island I had researched on a topo map online, but.... Well, I decided to go further west and follow the coordinates...WRONG! It wasn't long before I asked Mr. Verdin to turn back around. I just had to follow my gut feeling back to that island.
I started putting on my waders... Mr. Verdin found a spot to pull the boat close to the marsh grasses which were about four feet high! As he held the boat in place, I jumped off the boat with my camera and video in tow.
I walked not two feet and there they were...strewn around like popcorn all over the place...laughing gulls. I guess I kinda of expressed my sentiments loudly cause Mr. Verdin was at my side in no time flat to see what I saw. He was also in complete awe. We walked the island together, mostly in silence, lost in our own thoughts and fears and sadness.
Every 10-20 feet were more gulls under a bush or laying flat on the small shells or coffee grind colored soil. Some were fully intact and others were not. Most were decomposing rapidly and in stages of almost nothing left but feathers and bones. Sadly, some were recent and still looked fat and pretty except for their eyes of course. In a ten foot circumference, I counted seventeen gulls. Walking another ten-twenty feet were another 17-20 gulls.
Then I spotted her...a mother gull with an egg fully intact. She was under a mangrove brush where she made her nest to raise her young. But it was never to be...she died before the egg even had a chance to hatch. It was hard to take these photographs and think professionally to "make" them look good. Death, this way at least, is not pretty. I wondered how she had died. Was it from the Corexit? Was it from eating toxic fish? Was it drinking toxins in the water? Did she suffer? Was it painful?
Another 20 feet north, another 10-20 gulls, maybe more. Then I headed East and found some more mothers, sitting in their nest with an egg in each nest. One egg had what looked to be rust spots on it. Maybe it was oil splattered? Or toxins eating into the shell? Independent scientific studies will need to be conducted. I was told samples were taken from the flesh of some of the gulls. After seeing these two nest with eggs, I headed for the boat. Every step in the deep marsh grass was carefully placed as not to step even on an empty nest, or a weak or dead bird.
Then I spotted three juvenile brown pelicans about two months old as they had grown in some brown feathers. I could just see the tops of their heads, all eyes starring at me. :-) They were flapping in the middle of the island trying to head south, but were not flying. I watched them for a while and as I approached, they started to move away except for one. She didn't move...so I got a little closer to see if I could tell what if anything was wrong. I got about 10 feet away. Her wings didn't appear to be broken. No broken legs or feet either. I could see her feathers were sort of unfeathered if that makes sense. Like they were flluffed up and out of place, but not oiled at all. She still had a little downy feathers so I'm hoping it is that she is just not mature enough to fly yet.
In all we covered about 100 feet to the north, 30-40 feet east, and 100 feet south in a different area. I estimate we saw about 200-300 laughing gulls - all dead. Back on the boat, I picked up my equipment to take off my waders as we drifted along to the south side of the island. Then I started scouting again with the binoc and taking pics with my long telephoto lens. I noticed another juvenile brown pelican flapping it wings fruitlessly in the surf. He was by himself. He was stumbling and almost fell over to his side once. He was ill... Again; the Corexit? The water? Was it from spraying overhead? Eating toxic fish? Something got him sick and probably many others will follow in the weeks to come.
We idled a while longer, then headed back to the dock. We passed a few trawl boats with boom hanging from their booms. Just hanging out, circling. "Passing the time," Mr. Verdin said. "Just passing time."
Back through the bayou at the mouth, we ran across three BP boats all tied together. The guys were just hanging out. It was only 11:00. Maybe it was lunch time? Or, more than likely, their 40 minute break time. I thanked Mr. Verdin for taking me out there. I also got him another charter tomorrow afternoon and another possible one next week with other groups. He told me he has taken people out as far away as Austraila and Japan that wanted to "see" the oil.
It is hopeful that because people are now starting to hear and see photographs of these "dead birds" on THAT island, that testing will seriously be done more frequently and specifically for the chemical Corexit. Those birds died because of human error. They deserve to be counted instead of lying in the hot sun, stormy rain, and the dark of the the night, deterioating more and more each day. They need to be picked up and counted so that BP can be held accountable for each and every one of those birds; even the three unborn chicks (eggs).
Modoto Island - "THAT" is the island I visited today; the island with the "dead birds." The mother birds and pappa birds and baby birds and the unborn...sadly all dead. Screaming and shouting hasn't helped them... What is it going to take to get these birds out of harms way? Save the birds? I don't think they even know what that means. They (meaning the person giving the orders to spray those toxic chemicals in our waters) are heartless and souless. I wonder if they would let their child stand under a plane as it sprayed Corexit over the "oil" to disperse it...You know...since it's not toxic at all! NOT!
~Darlene Eschete~