Malibu Lagoon State Park needs birds.



I realized that my current job offers a perfect opportunity for this task, so I've been volunteering for and documenting every release mission for the last few months. My reward was getting to install some birds as permanently as possible at the Malibu Lagoon: a small-eared grebe, two ducks, and a pelican.

The pelican had fishing hooks embedded in his pouch and feet. We fixed that, fattened him up on fish, and sent him forth. He was initially reluctant to be sent forth and force was required on my part.



A small-eared grebe released (read: tossed gently) by my friend.



Two ducks. One was brought in with a foot problem caused by walking on hard man-made surfaces rather than the mud and grass of typical ducky habitats. The other one was brought in because... a really well-meaning person, who hadn't noticed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the duck, diligently chased it until it gave in from sheer exhaustion, then brought it to us on an errand of mercy.

Pulling up to a public beach in a large truck decorated with paintings of CA wildlife, plus with a variety of nets and other tools in the back, draws enough stares. But when four people in uniform get out of the truck and begin carrying large squawking boxes towards the water, even the most ardent surfers stop and talk to us. Conversations usually run something like this:
"What's that you got there?"
"A pelican."
"Right on!"

Working at a wildlife center means that anthropomorphizing is a Great Sin, but I can't resist ascribing personalities to bird species in my more bored moments at work. Just for fun, here are the results of my census: Pelicans are elderly bad-tempered people, the sort that wander slowly around public parks peering disapprovingly down their long noses at whatever they see. Gulls are sprightly middle-aged men with office jobs and exaggerated senses of their own importance. Ducks are the inane women with loud, grating voices who are always, mysteriously, in front of you in a supermarket queue. Egrets are models who wander around moodily pecking at fish on long, improbably slender legs. Small-eared grebes are pratfalling seven-year-olds. Hawks and owls are various political figures (hawks along the lines of Tony Blair, while owls are in a much more Gordon Brown mold). THe only bird I haven't found an analog for are cormorants, mostly because every cormorant I've met has been either viciously trying to attack me or abruptly dead.

The other birds shown in the pictures have not been released yet.