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# Rehabilitation centers lend a hand to birds
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/rehabilitation-centers-lend-a-hand-to-birds/
- Published: 2008-09-01T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:54:29.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Environment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Pelicans aren’t alone as an endangered species*

*By STEPHANIE TAFT Special to the Daily Press*

SM BEACH It’s been a hectic summer season for volunteers and members belonging to the International Bird Rescue Research Center and other groups in Southern California dedicated to helping the lives of endangered birds and other aquatic life.

The center, a nonprofit organization located in San Pedro and Fairfield, Calif., uses many tactics such as rehabilitation, research and training, to help mitigate human impact on any aquatic birds.

Hundreds of ill birds have been admitted for special care between both centers the past two months, coming from areas between Santa Barbara and Santa Monica, and even places as far away as Long Beach.

“We’ve been taking in a lot more birds from Santa Monica and all over L.A. county,” Jay Holcomb, executive director of the center, said. “Thankfully it hasn’t been because of recent oil spills.”

Holcomb said that the centers were originally built for birds suffering from oil spills, but others are taken in, including birds tangled in fishing line, baby birds that have fallen from nests or have been abandoned, birds that have been hit my cars or injured by people, or birds that are just sick.

“We’ve been able to help more birds since more people are finding out about our centers,” Holcomb added.

Julie King, rehabilitation manager at the center in San Pedro, explained the reasons for the recent influx in the number of birds rescued.

“As far as pelicans go, biologists have said that they’re having a good breeding year, which tends to mean that there are a lot of juvenile, fledging pelicans entering the environment,” she said. “This results in a lot of young pelicans coming in emaciated because they have not had enough to eat. Many adult birds have come in entangled in fishing line, too.”

King said that volunteers and staff have taken in about 50 pelicans entangled in fishing line out of the 160 they have helped just this year.

In the past two months, the San Pedro center has rescued about 350 birds.

“For us as rehabilitators, taking in a bird that had a very severe injury, getting them back up to peak condition, and then being able to release them when they’re healthy and strong … is the most rewarding.”

But helping the birds does not come cheap. Rehabilitating a pelican costs about $20 a day, most of which is covered by donations or extra funding from outside organizations. The center also offers the “Adopt a Pelican” to help cover costs.

Although Pelicans makeup a majority of the animals rescued at the center, they aren’t the only threatened aquatic birds along the coast.

Lucien Plauzoles, president of the Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society, a volunteer organization which provides a “center for wildlife education, habitat protection, and conservation issues that involve birds,” examines different species.

“When Audubon adopts an area for bird watching, we have and keep little by little records of what birds are seen at what seasons, and notes of birds that are sick or dying,” Plauzoles, who monitors territories extending from Marina del Rey to Malibu, said. “If there is a lot of a certain bird affected, we’ll report our findings to the center in San Pedro.”

The society, part of the greater National Audubon Society, is currently working on a project with the L.A. and Palos Verdes Audubon Societies to help a threatened bird known as the Western Snowy Plover. Santa Monica Bay Audubon has been monitoring plovers for seven years.

“The big problem is that when we have a beach for humans, we want to groom it so we can have clean, white and soft sand,” he said. “But grooming also cleans up vegetation from the ocean that attracts small insects, which is what snowy plovers eat, so part of the game for us is to keep the natural material so they can survive.”

The city of Santa Monica has helped to resolve this conflict by designating certain areas for the bird along the Santa Monica beach north of the Jonathan Club, where some plovers tend to settle.

“We study birds, we like to see birds, and we contribute to any science or policies which will eventually help birds,” he added.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/090108-02_01.jpg)

Audubon Society SITTING A SPELL: Western snowy plovers can often be found resting on Santa Monica Beach. (Photo: Photo courtesy Santa Monica Bay)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 1, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090108.pdf?ref=smdp.com)