August 21, 2018
Seabird E-murre-gency: Meet Mara
Meet Mara:
Young murres like Mara have been flooding our Northern California wildlife center for the past two months. Little Mara was named after her quick-thinking rescuer who was taking a morning walk on the beach and spotted something peculiar bobbing in the water – it looked like a tiny penguin. Springing into action, she found a passerby to hold her dogs while she rescued the confused and weak baby murre. Like the scores of young murre chicks in our care, Mara was found healthy, yet abandoned. This raises the question – what happened to her parents? Did her parents die from environmental causes? Baby murres like Mara learn to forage from their fathers. Without that guidance if left alone in the wild, they would slowly starve to death.
We have seen an alarming uptick in Common Murres coming into our center. Many were starving, and some were contaminated with oil. Since mid-July, over 100 murres have been admitted into intensive care at our San Francisco Bay-Delta wildlife center in Fairfield, California.
“E-Murre-gency” declared as unprecedented numbers of Common Murres need extensive care. This is a critical moment for waterbirds. From Brown Pelicans unexpectedly falling from the skies to polluted oceans and depleted fish stocks, this has been a challenging season. Increasing environmental challenges mean Bird Rescue is always responding to unexpected situations and struggling to absorb the costs.
We Need Your Help!
Bird Rescue needs to raise $100,000 by August 31st to help with the unexpected burden of caring for many additional birds beyond our budget. Thanks to an anonymous donor, for a limited time your donation will be matched dollar for dollar up to $50,000. Take action and donate now to save twice as many injured or orphaned birds, like Mara!
We dream of a world in which every person, every day takes action to protect the natural home of wildlife and ourselves. Thank you for helping us make that vision a reality.
With Gratitude,
The Bird Rescue Team