Birding the Oil Spill

It's the end of May, 2010, and BP's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill is turning out to be one of the biggest environmental disasters in recent memory. In fact, we have no idea how big it will get. The New York Times reports today that the recent effort to top-kill the broken pipe has failed, and efforts to cap the open well and ultimately divert the oil may take months to accomplish--if they work at all.

As with all oil spills, the effects on birds have figured prominently in the press. Birds are used as measures of the hazards of spilled oil. Images like this one, in the Guardian, give the sense that birds may be in danger ... but they are being cleaned off by well-trained teams of specialists. Pelicans like this one have been of particular interest to photographers; it's been hard to find pictures of oiled gulls and other common birds. (This article at AudubonMagazine.org does a nice job discussing gulls.) It's also worth noting that Procter and Gamble has been promoting it's image with hype about how useful Dawn dish soap is in cleaning oiled birds.

One image of a cormorant has been making the rounds, however, and it's a photo that paints a much bleaker picture of BP's spill. This one, an AP Photo by Gerald Herbert, features an oil-covered cormorant with what looks like very little hope. (The image appeared in a powerful oil-spill-image-roundup via Yahoo News.)

The American Bird Conservancy has a powerful datagraphic featuring bird habitats that are being hit by the spill as it's currently configured. The map shows both how many vital habitats in the area are at risk and just how few protected habitats there are. Of course, the Gulf may just be the starting place for this spill.

Lastly, eBird.org is a piece of social software that has great potential for sharing and compiling upcoming bird sightings all around the Gulf. It'll be interesting to see how many common birds show up in this data.