Tom Sweets, executive director with the Key West Wildlife Center, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on at the center.
Winds can certainly affect birds.
Sweets said, “Sometimes if the wind really is blowing, a lot of birds will sort of tuck in. And also it can create problems for feeding or hunting. With the brown pelicans, if it’s really windy and choppy out there on the water, then it churns up the bottom and they can’t see the fish that they’re hunting for. So you will see a lot of birds in real high wind situations will tuck in somewhere, and really will just sort of do essential flying that’s critically needed. But yeah, it can be a problem, just for sure. They’re generally pretty good about knowing where they’re going, but trying to get there in heavy winds, there are a lot of things they can get blown into, power lines, they can get blown into walls, so I would say, the more windy it gets you’re going to see birds tucking in more and more. That’s sort of why during a big storm event, you will find birds actually leaving the area, knowing, just through the barometric pressure that a storm is on its way, and they will sort of get out of the area. In some of the really big storm events, I remembered during the hurricanes, the birds that really took a beating were the double crested cormorants, because just where they are, where they hunt, sort of in nearshore waters, when we get one of those big storms, we’ll get a lot of really choppy, wavy near shore waters. And we saw a lot of double crested cormorants that were just completely exhausted from being out there and getting bumped around in the water.”
Six brown pelicans were recently released back to the wild from Key West Wildlife Center.
Sweets said, “We’re really trying to step that up. It’s getting towards the end of the season, so a lot of the pelicans, at least, will be heading north. They do sort of like a mini migration, especially the first year juveniles. They will spend the winter down here in the Keys, and then once the weather starts to warm up, they will go farther north into different areas, so we’re trying to get as many of them as we can released after rehabilitation. It’s sort of been a strange season, usually during December, January, that’s usually when we’re really at our height. But lately we’ve had a lot of rescues. So we’ve actually got sort of a lot of late season pelicans now. You’ll see the big V formations, where they form up and start heading out. And yes, we are working to get as many of the ones that we have in rehab right now out again. It does bring up a point. It’s sort of a funny overlap for us right now, because not only are we sort of ending the Pelican seasons and the Raptor seasons, now we’re getting into baby bird season. So we’ve got baby birds already hatching and already fledging. Sort of usually those two seasons are split pretty decisively. But this year we’re sort of blending together. So we’ve got a lot of different things going on all at once for sure.”
When the pelicans are released will they head north, too?
Sweets said, “They have just a natural urge to, so yes, it shouldn’t be a problem, and they’re still around, so they haven’t all left yet. But they are starting to get into that mentality of getting out of here. So yes, it shouldn’t be a problem. We’ve got about seven up in the clinic right now, and then we’ve got probably four or five left out in the aviary that all should be ready to go probably within the next week or two, and that will get them within that time frame. It’s really busy on both fronts right now, baby birds, and the pelicans and raptors and the other migratory birds. And it won’t be long till we start seeing the songbirds nesting, which we’re already seeing early signs of that, and the little warblers are, we’ve already seen some of those. So they’ll all be migrating north for the nesting season once we’re getting a little warmer weather coming in. So it’s a really busy, transitory time here at the Wildlife Center.”
If you find a baby bird on the ground, they aren’t necessarily in distress.
Sweets said, “They will spend a period of time once they’ve hatched in the nest, and then they will come down. The thing is the nest really becomes a target for predators. So add that the parents generally want to get the babies out of the nest as soon as they can, once they’re ready, and they will come down on the ground, and they will not be flying. They will just be sort of sitting on the ground. You’ll see the doves and the pigeons. They basically just sit and try to use camouflage, and they’ll take short flights, but they’re not completely ready to go, so they will be on the ground. The songbirds, that’s a little different. They will be hopping around on the ground. They’re very active. They will be moving, taking short flights, short jumps. And then the parents of the songbirds, will be coming every 10 or 15 minutes to feed them. But with the doves and pigeons, it’s different. The doves and pigeons, the parents really sort of let them hide on the ground, and then the parents go out during the day and gather up seeds to feed them. And they will really only come once or twice a day, usually in the morning or in the evening or when there’s no one around, when things are quiet, they will come and find the babies, and they will feed them all at once, once or twice a day. So they’re not the parents of the doves and pigeons. You probably won’t see them as much, but they are there taking care of the babies. And a lot of people think that those doves and pigeons on the ground that there’s something wrong, and it’s usually not the case. They are usually just tucked in, doing what they’re supposed to do. So we just ask people not to be grabbing the baby birds. There are times when these birds do need help, and if they’re in a bad spot, sometimes they do need to be moved. But we can certainly help talk people through the situation and try to figure it out and see what the best thing for the bird is. We always want to try to keep them with their parents. That’s the best way to do it, just to let the parents finish the job, because they know what they’re doing, and they will raise a really good, skilled baby. And if we don’t have to take them into captivity, that’s the best thing. I mean, we try to get them back out, and we’ll re release them once they’re ready to go. But the skills they learn from their parents that’s what we really want to have them learning. So if anybody has any questions, they can call our 24 hour rescue line at 305-292-1008, regarding baby birds, because we are really getting into that season, and it’s a lot going on with those baby birds coming down. We’d like to have people allow those birds to be raised by the parents. And to have the parents finish the job of raising the young, because that’s the best thing for the little baby birds.”
The Earth Day raffle is coming up to help the Wildlife Center.
Sweets said, “We’re always needing to keep our new building funded. We appreciate so much that the community allowed us to build this building. But a new building takes a lot to keep funded, to keep operations funded, all those kind of things. So the Earth Day raffle is part of that, and get involved with that and help support us. Help support our wildlife rescue and rehabilitation programs in Key West and the Lower Keys.”
There have been a number of rescues of birds recently.
Sweets said, “Quite a few of them with fishing hooks, fishing lures, that kind of thing. And we are here to help. People get into situations where you can’t always help hooking a bird. It’s certainly not intentional with the majority of the cases we see these pelicans will dive on people fishing or on fishing boats lines, and they will get tangled up in those hooks. They see the bait that the people are fishing with, and then they see it as a food source, so they dive on it, and then they get all tangled up. We do ask that if you ever do hook a pelican, don’t just cut the line, because if that Pelican flies off with the line that can get entangled on the bird, keeping it from being able to fly. Or if it goes to sleep in a mangrove or in trees, it can get tangled up there where they’re trying to sleep at night, and then they can’t get out of that situation. So if at all possible, we ask that people could reel in the bird and try to remove the hook. Or they can call us. If they have a bird just don’t cut the line. We’ll come right down there and try to get the bird before he flies off with a really long line around him, which can create a lot of problems.”
It’s also important not to feed the pelicans.
Sweets said, “When you’re cleaning fish at the fish cleaning stations, do not feed the filet carcasses. That’s the thing that really hurts the pelicans, that can tear their pouches. Pelicans plunge, dive in the wild, and they really only eat bait fish up to about eight, nine inches. They don’t really eat too much bigger than that. They’re diving on small, sometimes tiny, bait fish. And they’re not really equipped to deal with the larger fish. They will certainly try, because they are hungry and they want to eat. So if they see anything that they can easily get their beak on, they’ll try to take it. They’ll take fish that have been brought in and that are on the dock. They’ll take scraps. They’ll take the big bone in carcasses. They’ll really take anything. But the problem, it’s not just the torn pouches and that kind of stuff. It’s also that it changes their wild behavior. If the first thing one of those juvenile Pelican sees when he comes to town is people feeding them from a marina, then that’s where they’re going to think is a food source, and that’s where they’re going to go to be fed. And then that causes all the secondary problems. We get a lot of complaints about pelicans hanging out at marinas, their droppings covering the docks, or the boats, making a mess, or being aggressive, even towards people. And really that’s a direct result of people feeding these birds. If they weren’t being fed at the marinas, then they wouldn’t be exhibiting this behavior, and they wouldn’t be hanging out at the marinas. They have to learn that behavior. And that’s something that they see when the boats come in and people feed the birds while they’re cleaning. That’s just contributing to the same problem that we get a lot of complaints about from marinas and boat owners. So it’s sort of a cyclical thing, and it really starts with stopping the feeding, and then they will not, if you stop the feeding, they will eventually leave the marinas, and they will be out there plunge diving, doing their natural thing. If you go out to Smathers Beach, we’re getting late into the season, so it probably won’t be occurring too much longer, as some of the pelicans migrate, but you go out there, you’ll see a whole flock of the healthy pelicans actually doing what they’re supposed to be doing, plunge diving and hunting for small bait fish out there. So it’s always sort of nice to see them behaving as they should in the wild.”
For more information, click here: https://keywestwildlifecenter.org/