Plus Indian Shell Mound Park

Glynn Wilson

A brown pelican heading home to Gaillard Island in Mobile Bay for the night, taken from the beach in the Dauphin Island Audubon Bird Sanctuary, with a gas rig in the background. That’s Sand Island Lighthouse too.

[Click on the image for a larger view]

by Glynn Wilson

Acting on a tip from a group of bird experts, who say there was a major fallout of birds on Dauphin Island Monday on their annual trans-Gulf migration from South America, I trekked all through the Dauphin Island Audubon Bird Sanctuary this afternoon, as well as Indian Shell Mound Park, a wild bird refuge located on the northern shore of Dauphin Island, a barrier island in Mobile County, Alabama.

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Crisis At Bay, For Now, Due To Mild Weather

John Wathen

Our first shots of the BP oil slick, 30 miles south of the Alabama and Mississippi Gulf Coast, Tuesday, May 5. Notice the leading edge rainbow sheen bands, turned pink by the chemical dispersant that is not, in this case, dispersing it. Also notice how dark the liquid is behind the pink blobs, in the top of the picture. That is emulsified oil. According to experts in the sky, it is slowly drifting east with the tide, the Gulf Stream, while the wind today was trying to push it west.

by Glynn Wilson

MOBILE, Ala. — BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles still cannot answer the question of what went wrong with the automatic shutoff valve on the Deepwater Horizon, the ultimate cause of this growing oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Although reports indicate a subcontractor, Haliburton, didn’t fully allow the concrete to dry in the well. When the drill hit a large pocket of natural gas, the well exploded — two weeks ago today, and a week since we were told it was a crisis that was growing out of control.

“We don’t know why the shutoff valve didn’t work,” Shuttles said at a news briefing at the Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center on Water Street in downtown Mobile.

He indicated the priority was stopping the three leaks, preventing oil from washing ashore, and then assessment of “what needs to change” to ensure it never happens again.

The best estimate is that the leading edge of the rainbow sheen and emulsified oil is about 30 miles off the coast of Alabama still, and with the winds laying down, it is not moving fast in any direction. Weather forecasters are saying the general tendency is gradual movement toward the east with the tides, the Gulf Stream, with a possibility of it shifting north toward shore in two or three days when the wind picks up and changes direction.

“We are all working to cut the red tape and get this thing shut down,” Suttles said.

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Glynn Wilson

A brown pelican lowering its head onto its shoulders with the bill open, pulls its head back, and stretches the pouch over its throat and neck. The exposed neck looks like a large lump sticking up out of the pouch, according to the Cornell Bird Guide. Not sure that’s what this one’s doing. I think she was posing for me.

The tragedy of the loss of human life as a result of the explosion of a British Petroleum oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana is now also threatening to become one of the worst environmental disasters in American history, according to Birders United. Seabirds are particularly vulnerable and oil-soaked birds are beginning to wash up on coastal beaches.

Important bird areas on the Gulf Coast are threatened by the oil that continues to spew into the Gulf at an alarming rate. The timing of the spill could not be worse. Many birds are nesting on Gulf Coast beaches. Both parents and offspring could be threatened if the oil reaches shore.

Among the species for which there is considerable concern are the brown pelican, reddish egret, American oystercatcher, black skimmer, and the least tern.

Furthermore, wind and weather could push the oil into marshes and wetlands near the coast which are the breeding grounds for many waterfowl species.

In addition, millions of migratory songbirds are currently flying across the Gulf from their winter homes in Central and South America. After their long flights across the water, these birds stop off in the coastal areas impacted by the oil spill.

“This spill spells disaster for birds in the region and beyond,” George Fenwick, president of the American Bird Conservancy, said in a statement issued today. “We could be mourning the worst environmental disaster in recent U.S. history.”

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