Pelican brief
Post categories: Robyn in New Orleans
| 02:11 UK time, Thursday, 10 June 2010
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ÌýThe other day I saw the oil spill with my own eyes. Today I saw the impact it's having on Louisiana's wildlife.
I paid a visit to the Fort Jackson Bird Rescue Centre. It's mostly oil-covered pelicans arriving on a daily basis. They are a mighty sad sight.
The oily creatures have become the poster birds of this spill. Jay Holcomb, the director of the International Bird Rescue Research Centre told me there's been a jump in arrivals in recent days.
"We're seeing an increase, and that's because the oil has moved to their feeding areas."
All in all, 415 oil-covered birds have been brought to the rescue facility. It's a big grey warehouse fenced off with lots of "DO NOT ENTER" signs.
Every day for an hour, media are allowed to tour the centre and watch the birds being cleaned by a team 
of 50 staff.
Walking in, the smell is overwhelming. I asked Jay to describe it. He laughed. He's worked plenty of oil spills before.
"I'd say it was a mix between oil, fish which the pelicans are eating, defecation, and dish soap."
The birds themselves looked so sad. I caught myself in a "stupid question" moment and asked Jay how they were feeling.
"Well, they're in a cage and they've probably never been in a cage in their life and some of them could be 25 years old."
"This beautiful one with the blue eyes will be beautiful when she's clean. She'll have a beautiful white head."
I asked Jay whether it was still distressing for him, even after working lots of oil spills, including the Exxon Valdez, to see birds covered in oil.
"How can you ever get used to this?" he asked. "These are innocent animals covered in oil, and we caused the problems."
"I still get upset, I've had my tears. When they first started coming
in, they were just dripping with oil and I had a few moments where I just had to get it together."
I've been in Louisiana for two weeks now. I've met a lot of inspiring people trying to cope as best they can with this spill. Today was no exception and my hat goes off to those people working hard to make Louisiana's state birds stately once again.
