Doing research on seabirds and plastics, i have found that most of the birds near our coast consist of brown pelicans and laughing guls which stay on our coast year round. Other birds include northern gannets, piping plovers and white pelicans. These are migratory birds that are usually here around spring and early summer. Birds generally mistake plastics for food because it looks like the birds natural prey. Marine plastic debris also put off an odor that the birds associate with food. Certain tube-nose sea birds are attracted to dimethyl sulfide, which is a natural scented sulfur compound. Plastics that have been in the ocean pick up that scent from algae.
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| Laughing gulls in New Smyrna Beach |
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| Brown Pelican |
Hi Jenna. This is Jessy again in sec. 102. I just commented on Allie's very disturbing post. I hate to think that birds are eating plastic too! I'll ask the same question as Allie's. What birds are actually eating plastic and has anyone found plastic in any of our local birds?
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DeleteOther than us individually cleaning up beaches, is there a proactive group in the area that helps clean up the beaches from trash and plastic?
ReplyDeleteTrish OCE 1001
ReplyDeleteIs there any place we can take an injured bird? Two yrs ago, I rescued a laughing gul with a broken wing. When I took him to the lifegaurd station, they weren't interested in helping with advice. I took him home, and In a few days, I released him on the beach.
I originally found him on A1A in the Road not able to navigate.