March 17, 1963 - Oiled Dovekie Dying
Oiled Dovekie Dying
Exclusive Sunday Review sketch by Dennis Puleston of Brookhaven
Focus on Nature by Paul Stoutenburgh, Cutchogue
This week D enn i s Puleston
brings us a timely article con-
cerning one of the curses of
modern times — oil damage. To
some this problem will p a s s
another year unnoticed but to
many readers of this column it
will remain a malignant scar.
GUEST WRITER:
DENNIS PULESTON
Thanks largely to Rachel Car-
son's recently published b o o k
"Silent Spring ", the public has
became aware of the terrible de-
struction of our wildlife through
ill- conceived and generally inef-
fective attempts to destroy insect
pests by the use of toxic chem-
ical sprays. Popular indignation
at the pointless'slaughter of many
of our useful and well -loved birds,
animals, reptiles and fish is fast
reaching the point, it is hoped,
when legal controls are exercised
over the sellfish and ignorant use
of these poisons. While coming
too-late to repair the extensive
damage already done, we can at
least take encouragement -from
the fact that public pressure is
beginning to take effect in pre-
venting further disasters of this
kind. It is noteworthy that there
has been no repetition of t h e
particularly lethal s p r ay i n g
campaign conducted over m a n y
parts of Long Island in the spring
of 1957, which was purported to
control infestations of the gypsy
moth.. Undoubtedly, angry com-
plaints have contributed greatly
to curbing such stupid and waste-
ful campaign's.
Yet another kind of tragedy is
continuing unabated and practic-
ally unnoticed, a tragedy t h at
involves the lingering deaths of
countless thousands . of the sea-
birds that frequent our coastal
waters during the colder months.
Some of us who take w i n t e r
strolls along the beaches fronting
on the Sound and the Ocean may
have some slight idea of the ex-
tent of the mortality, but even
we are unable to grasp the full
scale of the unseen tragedy. We
come across some of the corpses
washed up on the shore, and in
each case we.find that the body
is soiled with a tarry substance.
Sometimes this material is only
the size of a 50 piece, but often
it covers the entire breast and
perhaps the upper body as well.
This is oil, dumped overboard
from tankers and other vessels,
or from shoreside oil storage tank
farms, when tanks are cleaned
preparatory to taking on another
load of fuel. In most cases, it
is a thick, viscous sediment,
hence its tarry consistency. Once
cast upon the waters, perhaps
hundreds of miles from Land, it
f l o a t s and drifts indefinitely.
Sooner or later, a seabird acci-
dentaldy comes in contact with
one of these floating globules,
which immediately adheres to the
feathers. Once they .become mat-
ted with the oil, they lose the
insulating properties that protect
the bird from the bitter cold of
the waters in which it lives. Feel-
ing the loss of its body heat, the
luckless bird attempts fo reach-
land. Sometimes, after a batter-
ing by the surf, it succeeds, only
to die slowly of starvation on the
beach, unless a wandering rac-
coon or fox puts a quick end to
its misery. More often, it per-
ishes at sea, from a combination
of pneumonia and hunger. As an
added factor, in attempting to
clean its feathers of the tar, the
bird ingests enough of it into its
system to be poisoned.
Whatever the cause or combina-
tion of causes, death is almost
always inevitable. It seems that
only a very small spot on the
plumage is enough to kill. Often,
on finding a bird stiil4 alive on
the beach,. I have attempted to
save it, but in most cases I have
had no Tuck, as the patient is
already too far gone. In the few
instances where I have succeed-
ed, it has involved long and care -
ful nursing. Many well-meaning
people, on finding an oiled bird,
remove the material with a strong
detergent. This, ihowever,. is a
mistake, for it also removes the
natural body oils that waterproof
the rest of Of plumage, and it
takes a long time for the feathers
to recover this natural protective
qualit,y. I have found`,rat t h e
best way to remove t tar is
by frequent applications bf d r y
fullers' earth. This very fine
powder, obtainable fro ny
drugstore, slowly alrbs�n d
draws off the tar& ss. In the
meantime, the bit'l%nust be kept
warm and well fed I'f it is a-
Loon, D o v e k i e, Razi
Auk, or related species, it will dW.
•best on small fish• suc. s killies.
Force - feeding will pably be
necessary at first, until the bird
becomes accustomed to catching
its own food in a large. tub of
water. Iif one of the sea ducks,
it should be offered a diet of
mussels as well as small fish.
In any event, the patient soon
becomes tame and amenable to
handling. The little Dovekies, like
miniature penguins in their black
jackets and white waistcoats,
make particularly amusing and
attractive pets, but naturally they
should be released to their native
elements again when they
are considered completely reha-
bilitated.
The species that are mainly af-
fected locally, . natura -fly because
they spent most of their lives on
the open ocean, are the following:
The three Scoter Ducks, the Old -
squaw Duck, the two Loons, the
Dovekie, the RazorjbidQed Auk,
the three Murres, and the Com-
mon Cormorant. Bodies of many
other s p e c i e s are sometimes
found, however, and often a Gull
can be seen with a diark patch
on its underbody, though it is
doubtful if the mortality rate is
so high in these cases, s i n c e
GUlls can survive well on land
and thus would not suffer so much
from exposure.
Not oni this tragedy occur -
ring along our own coastlines,
and seriously depleting our popu-
lations of oceanic birds, it is a
worldwide problem. Along t h e
south coast of Britain, where the
English Channel forms a kind of
bottleneck for all the easterly
drifting debris from the Atlantic,
thousands of dead and dying sea -
fowl are often washed up on the
beaches after a spell of south -
westerly weather. The conserva-
tion- minded Britishers are becom-
ing increasingly indignant at this
pollution off their shores and the
consequent killing of their bird -
life, and protests are m a d e
continuously.
How to pint a stop to this loathe -
some practice of oil dumping?
A t r e a d ,y international treaties
have been signed forbidding such
acts, but who can enforce t he
law when a ship is far at sea
with no one to .monitor its behav-
ior? It 'is doubtful that the aver-
age skipper is even remotely
aware of the far - reaching devast-
ation for which he is responsible.
Perhaps a system of enforced
education in conservation for all
persons engaged in the shipping
and storage of petroleum products
is the best answer. I am con-
vinced that if they could' see for
themselves the lingering deaths
suffered by.the pitiful victims of
their thoughtlessness, they wound
hesitate to continue the practice.
In the meantime, however, the
innocent victims continue to pro-
vide with their soiled and em-
aciated corpses mute testimony
to one more instance of man's
disregard for the fellow creatures
with which he shares this earth.
FIELD OBSERVATIONS:
Ruth Porter reports:
East Moriches — Feb 28
Evening Grosbeak (3)
Laurence Ernest reports:
Southampton — Mar 2
Evening Grosbeak (2)
Southampton — Mar 4
Hermit Thrush
Marsh Hawk
Howard Meschutt reports:
Hampton Bays — Mar 3
Evening Grosbeak (8)
Field Trip To Montauk — Mar 9
Purple Martin
Red - tailed Hawk
Rough - legged Hawk
Meadowlark (50)
Crow (2'5)
Snow Bunting (12)
Myrtle Warbler
Swan (2)
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter — 4500
Common Scoter
Common Eider (10)
Common Loon (5)
Purple Sandpiper (7)
Brant (18)
European Cormorant (10)
Continued on Page 5M
Sea'•I
Meeox — March 9
Widgeon
Pintail
Goldeneye
Canada Goose (1000)
Sanderl'ing (4)
Greater Scaup (800)
Buriflehead (4)
Kildeer (5)
Mourning Dove (2)
American Merganser
Dennis Puleston reports:
Brookhaven — Mar 7
Bluebird
Judd Bennett reports:
East Marion — Mar 10
Bluebird (6)
Orient Point State Park —