"Nest in Peace" - Leaving the Gulf

It was our final day in the Gulf for this trip, and after an early morning interview on camera with a local CBS affiliate we jumped back into the car (again) to head down the coast. We heard the reports that Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge had been hit with oil since the last time we were there. Knowing it’s sea turtle nesting season in that area, we decided to check in with the refuge staff and see what the impacts have been.  

On our way, we swung through the Gulfport/Biloxi, MS area to have a look at their beaches and coastline.  Everywhere we had been was like a military zone, with helicopters flying low level along the coastline, surveying the beaches and waters and gathering data on where the oil is and where wildlife is in trouble. This area was no exception.  As we drove along the coast, we began seeing signs posted that the sandy beach area is home to nesting least terns. The signs said in big bold letters “Least Tern Nesting Colony – Nest in Peace.”  We saw a few least terns as we drove along the frontage road, but then we hit a stretch of beach that looked like it was just recently restored, with sea grasses that could not be more than a year or so old.  The area was teeming with terns swooping through the skies.

We got out of the car to marvel at the incredible nesting success anchored between a four lane highway and sidewalk and the coastline.  The total sand area width was less than 100 yards. I plopped down on the sidewalk, safely back from the sand and just reveled in the bird music and new life that was abounding around us.  I realized just how badly I needed to see something good and positive, and for the first time all week the intense heat and humidity didn’t seem so bad.  I even tried to record the sounds on my Blackberry so I could play it back for myself when I needed a boost.  Looking down the beach, I realized the terns had neighbors; hundreds of nesting black skimmers, one of my all-time favorite shorebirds.  The telltale barking of the skimmers was unmistakable.

I shimmied down the sidewalk to watch them for a while and it was like watching a video on bird behavior – the skimmers did everything from dive bomb each other to display the “broken wing behavior,” a common diversion technique used by nesting birds to shift attention away from their chicks (a bird walks along the ground, calling out with one wing hanging as if injured to ward off predators),  to the obvious doting parental behavior with all the chicks scattered on nests throughout the sand.  Being surrounded by hundreds of black skimmers, if only for a short while, was a wonderful gift and a memory of the MS coast I will never forget. I decided they must have liked me more, since they pooped on Krista and Cindy, but not on me. 🙂 Krista got a lot of great shots of both the terns and the skimmers; it was a wildlife photographer’s bonanza.

I was struck by the resilience of nature at this time.  There we were in Gulfport, next to this thriving colony of terns and skimmers. All someone had to do was help to restore a little slip of habitat in this busy beach town, sandwiched between the public beach and a major roadway, and the birds take full advantage of it.  It just shows that if we make room for these creatures they will do all they can to survive and thrive.

While we wanted to sit with these birds all day, we got back into the car and continued on to Bon Secour. We were in contact with the refuge staff who were waiting to take us out to the beaches to get a firsthand look at the oil that had hit their shoreline. We met up with Jim Burkhart, a retired refuge employee from Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in GA. Boy, it had been a long time since I had seen Jim, and I have to admit he was a sight for sore eyes. We spent a few minutes going down memory lane remembering our canoe and overnight camping trip through the vast refuge in south GA.  Jim shared that a number of his retired colleagues have answered the call for help and come back into service to help their wildlife refuge colleagues deal with the onslaught of challenges heaped on their already stretched thin staffs and budgets.  Jim was happy to be back “in uniform” and had been on the ground for two weeks at the refuge, expecting to continue on as long as they need him, wherever they need him. What a saint!

He took us out to a beautiful beach where the endangered AL beach mice live behind the dunes not far from the shoreline. It didn’t take long at all to find the oil.  Within a few steps along the water, we came upon a water bottle coverd in the sticky gunky mess.  Krista spent time getting some shots while Jim, Cindy and I walked further down the beach. Seeing that bottle makes me happy that we have been coordinating beach cleanups in Florida recently so that the trash gets picked up before the oil hits.  Kudos to Laurie and our FL staff for doing this on top of their already long work weeks!  We were told that if the trash stays on the beach, it becomes hazardous material and has to be specially treated.  Our regular volunteers would have to be hazmat trained to be able to remove this bottle.  Yet another reason not to litter!

We had to be careful where we walked because the oil was everywhere.  Cindy got some on her foot (that should teach her to walk barefoot on a contaminated beach!) and the sticky mess was almost impossible to get off.  As we walked, we found thick sheets of oil lining the beach.  Jim said the stuff came up just a few days ago and is now getting covered in a light layer of sand from the tides.  We were told that BP is saying they won’t clean oil up that is covered in sand.  So much for them saying they will do what it takes to clean the region up.  A few tides combined with a day of not montoring these beaches and it’s obvious you’ll have sand and oil mixed together.  There is little hope for a sea turtle trying to dig a nest through this gunk.  In the hot Alabama sun, the edges of the sold oil was melting like lava into a more liquid substance, similar to dirty oil that comes out of our cars during an oil change.

Cindy walked into the water and saw numerous balls of tar rolling in the water.  We were met by another refuge employee, detailed to Bon Secour from another refuge, who was running the coastline on a four wheeler checking out the situation on the refuge. He told us that just down the beach there was an active sea turtle nest.  I wonder what that mother sea turtle had to swim through to get to her beach to nest and I fear for her and her soon-to-hatch babies. Baby sea turtles have all the odds against their survival to begin with, from predators like gulls to beach foxes vying for the eggs and the hatchlings. So few survive to adulthood. With this oil spill, it will be a real miracle if any of this generation survives.

It has been a sobering trip this week.  Before we left Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, I hopped on a conference call with a Congressional delegation that is arriving tomorrow (Friday). I briefed them on what I had seen this week.  I am glad they are coming to see for themselves this catastrophe and hope that they will be as moved as I am to change the course of this country and our addiction to oil. I also hope that they provide the necessary resources to help the many good people that are working nonstop to help the wildlife here. There is no doubt in my mind that we must do everything it takes to make this spill a turning point for this county. If we don’t see from this spill what a danger our addiction to oil is, I fear we never will! We have to believe we can learn from this and change course. Our children deserve our dedication to this effort!