Company admits 1,600 ducks died in oily waste

A Canadian company is under fire this week for under-reporting duck deaths at an oil sands plant in northern Alberta. A Syncrude executive admitted 1,606 duck carcasses were collected from the toxic oily waters – three times more than was reported following the incident last year. The ponds contain waste from the process of separating … Read more

Washing birds of oil: Almost there

Note: This is Jay Holcomb’s latest update from inside the bird rehabilitation center in Cordelia: We currently have about 970 Live birds at the center and over 200 of them have made it to the pools and are reconditioning their feathers, eating and resting. By no means are they home free but they are 75% … Read more

Despite worries, Dungeness crab season opens

The Dungeness crab season opened as scheduled Thursday amid health concerns by those who wanted all fishing banned as cleanup continues on last week’s oil spill. The state announced that only the San Francisco Bay and three miles of Pacific coast, from Point Reyes to San Mateo County, would be off limits to commercial fishing. … Read more

Being grateful for what we have in California

From Jay Holcomb, International Bird Rescue’s Executive Director: I am resting for a minute so I thought I would write a very short update for the blog. First, thank you all for your well wishes and support. We are so grateful to the people who have contributed their time or money to this effort and … Read more