The Release Files: A cormorant found hanging in a tree net returns home

Double-crested Cormorant photo by IBR intern Sean MacDonald; inset photo © P. Wallerstein, MAR/Friends of Animals. Good news! International Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles center recently received into care this Double-crested Cormorant, found hanging in a tree net in Marina del Rey and rescued by L.A. County Fire Department Station 110. The bird had a drooping wing … Read more

Remember this duo? Fishing line-entangled gulls successfully treated and released

Photos by Cheryl Reynolds A few weeks ago, we wrote about two juvenile Western Gulls who were saved thanks to the fast action of the Vallejo Police, the U.S. Coast Guard and International Bird Rescue staff. The gulls were spotted at the Vallejo Marina entangled together in fishing line, mired in mud and facing a … Read more

A Laysan Albatross returns to sea

This Laysan Albatross was recently evaluated and released by International Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles wildlife care center team. Photos by Paul Berry. “Big birds in big oceans, albatrosses lead big, sprawling lives across space and time, traveling to the limits of seemingly limitless seas,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Safina wrote in the 2002 classic Eye of … Read more

Patient rounds

Photo by Cheryl Reynolds (inset photo of grebe being treated for fish hook injuries by Isabel Luevano) A few weeks ago, we posted about a Western Grebe brought to our San Francisco Bay Area wildlife center with hook injuries in her back, leg and mouth. As you can see from the photo above, we’re happy … Read more

Encore: Pelican Release, Dec. 1 at Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve

White Pelican release, all images by Mike Stensvold © 2012 Mike Stensvold sent us these fantastic shots of Saturday’s White Pelican release at Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. Boy Scouts from Troop #1149 of the Orange County Council were also on hand to help give these magnificent animals a send-off back into the wild! © 2012 … Read more

1,000 Blue-Banded Pelicans — and Counting!

On a recent afternoon at the Golden Gate Recreation Area’s Ft. Baker, International Bird Rescue released its 1,000th Blue-Banded Pelican, with wonderful help from bird lover Ken Blum and his family! #ROO, a juvenile, was released alongside a fellow juvenile pelican. Surrounded by porpoises, gulls, cormorants, grebes and sea lions at Ft. Baker, the two … Read more

Remembering New Zealand’s Rena Oil Spill, 1 Year Later

                                                                       Little Blue Penguin in the Rena Spill, photo by Curt Clumpner By Barbara Callahan, International Bird Rescue In the early morning hours of October 5, 2011, the MV Rena, a large cargo ship carrying 1,368 containers, struck a reef in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, spilling several hundred metric tons of heavy fuel and … Read more