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Oil spill and a white ibis
The white ibis is in the center and the two insets. All are stills taken from video taken at Allens Pond April 29, 2003. I thought the white heron made an interesting size comparison, as did the two gulls.
The "BirdEast" mailing list [go here to learn more] reported "an adult WHITE IBIS found yesterday afternoon at Allen's Pond in South Dartmouth." Since this is 10 minutes from my house, I decided to take a look. It was a positive note to an otherwise gloomy local environmental news. There has been a significant oil spill in Buzzards Bay and some of the oil might reach Westport. In fact, Allen's Pond is connected to the Bay by a small inlet and just east of that inlet they were already reporting oil and seabords battling for their lives. So I decided to look for the Ibis and see if the oil was spreading our way.
I did this with some trepidation. Nothing looks more pitiful than a bird covered with oil. I hate to even see the pictures and I'm glad there are people who can deal with and help the birds. I really didn't know what I was going to do if I encountered one.
Good news on all counts, though - the oil still seems to be east of us, I saw no oil-soaked birds, and I found the ibis. but it took a while, which was fine. I walked from East Horseneck to the Inlet, about a mile, meeting four birders on the way. One, from Boston, said she had seen the ibis, but it hard flown to the other end of the pond. The other birders were from the other end of the pond. They had been out for an hour or more and not seen the ibis and were giving up.
I decided to walk on down to the inlet where there are areas roped off now for nesting piping plovers, common and least terns. There also was a barrier on the beach that they obviously planned to pull across the small inlet to stop the oil from coming in. It was a nice day and a nice place to take a nap, so I did. (This is what happens when you get up at 3am. Folks think I don't sleep. I do. Just not all in one lump.) When I woke up I looked down the beach with my binoculars and counted about 30 people who were at least half a mile away. they were wearing bright colored coveralls and obviously involved in the oil clean-up at Barney's Joy.
Posted by Greg Stone at April 29, 2003 06:31 PM