Wild Ways

Baby birds in nest at SSS

Article by Kathleen Walls
Photos by Martin Wall

Ralph and Peeper

Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary is the largest bird sanctuary in the country. We discovered it while researching Wild About Florida: Central Florida. How it came to be is almost as interesting as the wonderful work it does to protect seabirds.

The Sanctuary founder, Ralph Heath, had been unofficially caring for injured birds all his life but had not considered it as a career. When he was a child, he would find an injured bird and bring it to his father who was an MD. His father was able to "put anything back together and have it live." Yet how he was guided to help these birds was a strange quirk of fate— or maybe pre-ordained.

Brown pelican at SSS

Back in December of 1971, Ralph had just graduated from University of South Florida with a degree in pre-med Zoology and was taking a little time off to ponder his career moves.  He reminisced, "I thought about becoming a doctor like my father but I like to be outdoors and had watched my father have to spend a lot of time indoors with his patients. I was going out to do some Christmas shopping and saw a little cormorant hobbling along Gulf Blvd with an injured wing dragging on the pavement. I stopped and caught the little bird. Since my father was at his office in Tampa, I took it over to a veterinarian friend of mine, Dr. Shinn."

The vet put a steel pin in the birds broken wing and returned it to Ralph. "I've done my part. Now it's up to you," the vet told Ralph.

American white pelican at SSS

The bird needed a least a month of rest and recuperation and then some retraining before it could be released. Ralph took the bird home and went to the bait shop at the local pier. He told the owner what he needed the bait fish for and returned home to feed the injured bird.

Florida's real pink bird, a roseate spoonbill

The next day, the bait shop owner called with news. "Guess what, I just found you an injured sea gull under the pier."

Then  some friends of Ralph's called with a pelican who had gotten tangled in fish line.

Now, Ralph has lots of help at SSS

The sanctuary was born almost overnight and Ralph had a new vocation.

The sanctuary grew miraculously. Police  and fire department began to bring in injured birds. The newspaper picked it up and birds began coming in daily.

Juvenile black crowned nighthawk

Today, they average about 150 birds in the hospital at any one time. In the outdoor areas it averages 600 to 700. Most of the injured pelicans have been injured by monofilament fishing line. A strange phenomena has happened lately. Ralph said, "injured herons, egrets, pelicans and even lowly pigeons have hobbled in to the sanctuary late at night as if they are looking for help. They usually arrive at night and often allow me to pick them up and take them into the hospital."

Adult black crowned nighthawk

We  watched the antics of several black crowned night herons, a stately great blue heron who seemed to guard the beach entrance and countless pelicans who wandered around the sanctuary. Many of the birds in the Sanctuary just remain in there even when they are not caged. Several wild birds landed on top of the cages and tried to get in. They knew they have discovered the Garden of Eden avian style.

Skimmers on the beach

Birds find a safe zone not only inside the sanctuary but on the beach in front of it. When we visited, the beach was covered with black skimmers. Michelle Simoneau , the sanctuary's public relations director, told me we had just missed seeing the baby skimmers. Several weeks ago, just after they had hatched, she had rescued one from the hungry clutches of a sea gull.

Black skimmer with a fish

These little black and white birds with funny looking black and red bills seem to know they are safe here. They are the only bird whose lower bill is larger than the upper. That is because they use it to skim the water as they fly along.

www.suncoastseabirdsanctuary.com