EMERALD ISLE — As winter has shifted to spring and heads toward summer, Emerald Isle’s newly renamed named and growing volunteer Shorebird Rescue Team has had a busy final week of May.
Carla Aldridge, who refuses to call herself “head of the team” but will concede to getting called the “go-to-person,” said the group rescued and responded to calls and/or tried to help about a dozen birds in the week that ended Sunday, May 28.
Those included two scoters, one gull, one cardinal, five common loons, one merganser, one pelican and one gannet.
It’s rewarding but sometimes difficult work. Team members usually use their own vehicles to take injured or sick birds to the Possumwood Acres Wildlife Sanctuary in Hubert or the Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter in Newport.
“Two of the birds, a pelican and a loon, we could not find within a mile of the location the caller reported. It is always very helpful if the caller can stay with the bird, so we know if it goes back into the water or travels further down the beach,” Aldridge said. “Two of the birds, the merganser and the gull, we determined were better left alone.”
The biggest problem right now is the loons.
“The loons we are picking up now are very emaciated,” Aldridge said, “weighing in at 1,730 to 1,780 grams (3-4 pounds), when their average weight is 4,100 grams (about 9 pounds).”
These, she said, are loons that have been left behind, for unknown reasons, as most of the loons have migrated away.
There has been a lot of tough weather offshore in the ocean, and currents and strong waves have washed the weak and hurt ones ashore.
Aldridge has lived in Emerald Isle for 22 years and has been involved in helping to protect and rescue shorebirds in the town for about five years. The first year she was involved, she rescued 40 birds, and in the first six months of 2023, there have been 190, a testament to increased public knowledge of the team, more than any change in the status of the birds. The team is closely affiliated with the town’s volunteer Sea Turtle Patrol.
Aldridge remembers when she was the only one involved in bird rescues. Now there are 17 volunteers. The team will go anywhere in the area almost to help a bird, from the western tip of Emerald Isle to Fort Macon State Park at the eastern end of Atlantic Beach, and will occasionally venture to Morehead City, Havelock, New Bern and Jacksonville.
“We’re truly a team,” she said. “I couldn’t do this without everyone else. If you ever come across a bird that you think needs a helping hand, please call me at 252-723-7487.”
Aldridge raised some house birds – parakeets and the like – when she was raising her children – but didn’t have any when she was a child.
Still, she said, “I’ve always loved birds.”
She has learned bird rescue on her own mostly, and said she still has a lot to learn about trapping them and transporting them to OWLS and PAWS.
It can be tricky.
Some of them, such as the gannets, can be very aggressive. And you want to make sure you don’t take a bird from a very hot environment into a freezing cold vehicle, or vice versa.
“They have their own way of living and surviving,” she said of the wide variety of birds the team tries to aid. “I thoroughly enjoy it.”
She also said she enjoys teaching the new team members the tricks of the trade.
“The main thing is to keep them (the birds) calm and keep that temperature in the car right.”
Aldridge said she’s very grateful for the work of those who care for the birds at the wildlife centers in the area, giving them fluids, feeding them. nursing injuries and giving them needed medications until – hopefully – they can be released. Some don’t make it, but many do.
“It can be heartbreaking,” Aldridge said. But when she hears of a rescued bird being released, “It’s like a flower blooming,” she added. “It’s free, back in its natural environment.”
Contact Brad Rich at 252-864-1532; email [email protected]; or follow on Twitter @brichccnt.