No Laughing Gull

Gallery: AvianPosted July 6, 2010180 views6 comments

Volunteers clean a laughing gull at the Fort Jackson Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Buras, LA, July 5, 2010. The facility has released around 400 birds back into the wild after they were soiled by oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20th. So many more however are not making it and out of all of the assignments I cover for my publication during the year this is the hardest to look at for me. Its pretty hopeless there for both the people and the wildlife.

Model: NIKON D3
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh
Lens (mm): 70
ISO: 2000
Aperture: 3.5
Shutter: 1/320
Program: Manual

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by dan elster on July 6, 2010 at 5:27 PM

Nicely done image. The bird has a look of distress which adds to the impact.

I hope you document this catastrophe's effects on bird life as much as possible...That being said, it must be hard to do mentally. I can't even watch the news anymore, the oil spill is just too depressing.

Registered on September 23, 2005, 299 Posts, 2443 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on July 6, 2010 at 5:50 PM

A tough image to view.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Douglas Graham on July 6, 2010 at 7:00 PM

This may be better served in the PJ category so if the mods see fit please move. Yes hard to do/see/push the shutter but this is what I do for a living and the images and stories we produce are looked at by the members of congress (CQ / Roll Call) so maybe just maybe if we rub it in their eyes enough more money will flow down there for the good people of Fish & Wildlife who are over run and under staffed.

Registered on May 14, 2009, 123 Posts, 522 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on July 6, 2010 at 10:29 PM

thanks for posting this, Douglas, and thanks for being out there documenting this atrocity.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Katja Rosvall on July 7, 2010 at 2:35 AM

I agree completely with what others said. This is excellent as a capture and also as a message. Well done.

Registered on August 16, 2009, 28 Posts, 636 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on July 7, 2010 at 9:47 AM

Doug, thanks for documenting this. I have been wondering how things are progressing (or not progessing). I am fine with it here, but might also post another capture of it in PJ.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments