George

 
George is a Herring Gull.
 
We found George on October 9th, 2009 while on a short 3 day boat trip.
 
We named him "George" as it seemed to suit him.
 
He was on the beach of a small island that we used our dinghy to with a couple of friends.
 
When we found him. He was lying below the high tide line, which told us that he had been there for about 4 hours or so. The next high tide would have killed him. This meant that he had about 3 hours or so to live.
 
 
We approached him with great caution, not knowing what reaction we were going to get from his 3 inch beak. Don't forget that George is also a wild bird and not used to human invasion.
 
 
We were pleasantly surprised to find that there was no hostility from George what so ever toward us. In fact. He almost seemed to be relieved that we were there, which, at this point, we could not understand.
 
 
After talking to him for a while and trying our best to gain his confidence. We decided that it is now or never and picked him up. He did not object in any way to our intervension.
 
 
We soon noticed that, he was unable to stand on his own and was at the mercy of the tide or whatever creature decided that George's time had come.
 
 
After a quick look at his wings, belly and the sand he was lying in, we found that he was being Eaten Alive by ants and he was obviously in a lot of pain.
 
 
One of our friends (Colleen) took him to the water line, put him in the water to drown and remove the ants from him. He looked traumatized and relieved all at the same time.
 
 
( How would you feel if a monster that is 30 or 40 times the size of you picked you up and on top of that, you were slowly being eaten alive )?
 
 
We had "Max", one of our resident parrots on the boat with us for the trip, so I get in the dinghy, go back to the boat, take Max out of his cage and head back to help George with Max's cage in hand.
 
 
I should say at this point, that our boat has a good size salon with patio style doors. Max was in no danger. In fact he had a great time exploring his way around the salon, galley and the state room.
 
 
After all of the ants were removed from George, we took him out of the water and put him into Max's cage. Loaded him into the dinghy for the his next traumatic experience of the day and we all headed back to the boat.
 
 
We were not able to get him to eat, but did manage to get him to drink fresh water. George held his own for the next two days until we arrived back to our home port with the boat.
 
 
Each day he looked worse than he did the day before and we were convinced that he was not going to make it.
 
 
On Monday October 12th 2009. We took him to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary hoping for the best, but expecting the worsed.
 
 
Can you imagine what this poor bird must have been thinking during this whole ordeal?
 
 
The fact, that he made it this far is a wonder all on it's own, but he did.
 
 
The Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary is considered to be one of the top avian rehabilitation centers in the world.
Close to 10.000 wild injured birds consisting of 159 different species are taken in each year. Each one has it's own story to tell.
 
 
On a happy note:
 
Over 80% of the birds that survive the first 24 hours are successfully rehabilitated and released back into the wild.
 
These statistics rank the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary as the largest and most successful sanctuary & hospital for wild birds in the United States.
 
We are very fortunate to have such a place that is close to us and pleased to say that George was placed in the best home possible with the best possible care available to enable him to have a fighting chance of recovery and release back into the wild.
 
 
George's Updates:
 
October 15th 2009.
He is still being syringe fed and holding his own, the hospital stated he has a 50/50 chance.
 
October 30th 2009.
George has been moved from the hospital into an outside hospital pen and eating on his own. The hospital said he has a 90% chance of being released back into the wild.
 
November 4th 2009.
George is doing great and if his progress continues at his current rate. He will be released back into the wild in the next few weeks.
 
January 19th 2010
George made a 100% recovery and was released back into the wild.
 
  • Seabirds are not typicaly the birds that come to our rescue center.
  • We just happened to find George on one of our boating trips. It it always a great feeling and gives us a lot of satisfaction to know that another bird has a second chance, wether it be a parrot or a wild herring gull like George.
  • They all deserve to live and we are here to help any bird, if and when we can.
 
For more information about the sanctuary or to donate or volunteer your help at the sanctuary click on the following link   http://www.seabirdsanctuary.com