Brevik by day. Very cosy village!

Full City is now docked to a shoreline.
The operation took 11 hours and now it's
safely by the seaside instead in the middle of the
sea with a 3 meter rock sticking up its ass.

Quite powerful to stand beside it.
It gave me new strength to continue my bird-work.

Monday 17/8
I began working at 15.30 today as well, doing the night shift and I was thrown straight into work! We were catching birds in a pool to get them blood tested and to clean the pool. It's always funny to hold the birds, gives you a little credit of why you're there! Then I switched to the holding area making mash and electrolydes, washing stuff, desinfectioning stuff such as tubes and pipes. There's not really intense work in the evening but it's important as well. I got picked up by my boyfriends mother and she payed for the food. Again. So yeah, I can see it as a donation for my organisation ^_^

I also managed to swoop a can of shrimps that I put blood, sweat and tears in to get loose from a shack of ice on to the floor. YAY. Not useable. I hate myself sometimes ;) But shit happens, it was not the end of the world really.


Sunday 16/8
Today I started working later in the afternoon, more accurately at 15.00. We had a internal meeting first at 13.00 and then I began cleaning tents. Again. And carrying boxes. Again. But I do it gladly since everything I do is for the birds =). After that we made mash (pellets, water, vitamins and electrolydes) and electrolydes in tubes to give the birdies. They're all doing very well and gaining weight. They're water resistant so they will be released on wednesday or thursday!
We also made a new desicion on the seals since there are 15-20 seals that have oil in their fur. The thing is with seals, they are in a fur-exchange-period now so hopefully they'll change the oily fur into new fur and they also manage to get the oil off much better than birds do. So we'll leave them alone =). There was not much else to do, a guy hit on me while bringing in a dead bird... Sexey. Or not. Luckily I have this amazing loving boyfriend, I don't need more!

Saturday 15/8
I had a day off. :)

Friday 14/8
Began working at 8 o'clock in the morning (as usual) by washing out all the tents in the holding area, also known as the dirty area. You do that by first rubbing all of the floors with soap and then get all the foam off the floors by crawling on your knees and then but anti-bacterial on the floors and again crawl on your knees to put it over the whole floors. It's alot of carrying with the cages back and forth but they need to be washed and cleaned as well. We don't want a new version of the bird-flu here ;D. After that we did a few smaller duties such as cleaning, folding towels, making food for the birdies, cleaning the food station and so on. Last, me and another girl built a pool for the birdies and I tell ya! My kids are NEVER having one of those pools. That was messed up work. Phew. Makes it look easy, but once you get your hands on it not even Einstein would be able to..

I read in the local newspaper that Langesund got critisism from swedish "experts" on birdwashing.
They were pissed out on 4 things.
1. They didn't all get to wash birds.
2. They were put to do the "shitwork".
3. They couldn't do things their way.
4. We use to high pressure in the shower on the birds.

I got so mad! If you have only experts on this type of things they all need to help out on all different stations to get the organisations rolling. By that I mean everything from making coffee for volounteers to cleaning the storage, cutting fish, wash stuff and so on. The birdwashing process is only 3-4% of the whole process. If you calculate on it, you need one hour to wash a bird. But you need 2 whole weeks to make sure that the bird is well enough to be released, that makes 13 days and 23 hours of other stuff with each bird. You need people to do all the things that are done the other 13 days and 23 hours. Fuckers.
Second of all, if you have experts on all stations you're assured that every station is doing the right thing instead of having amateurs on 19/20 stations and have ALL of the experts on ONE station...
Third, if there's ten organisations working together in a way that works out for everyone you can't come as one organisation and do everything your way in the middle of a war. You have to either suggest that before the chaos breaks out or after, when we do the summary of this action.. Sigh.
Last, the high pressure is good out of two reasons. First of all, the person rinsing the bird is more sure the foam is all out of the feathers making sure that it's waterresistant and that the birds produce their own fat again. Second of all it's a much faster method to do it. Otherwise you have to handle the bird over an hour on only the rinsing which is very evil both to the poor bird who is very scared and confused and to your own back.

12/8 and 13/8

Today was a many-smaller-tasks-day. I started off with Silje to clean the first tent from birdspill and then I went on cutting some fish, cleaning a ground area where they have kept a few birds (and their boxes), carrying stuff back and forth... I cleaned yet another tent, and I can tell you, it's not very funny to clean those tents cause you do it on your knees with your hands. It smells of shit all over, but once you're done the whole place smells fresh and nice! I think the birds enjoy it too!

There was no birdwashing today since we have no room for them, we have to build more pools, all the time! So Linda and I jumped on to that project, building a pool.. to say the least - we're not the best of pool-builders but there is a new pool standing up right now (and how long it really -stands- up we'll just see...)!

I really feel like I don't want to go home now.. I want to stay here.. all the time.. :(
--------------------

I didn't write anything yesterday and I apologize for that but I was so incredibly tired and fell asleep quite immediately after returning to my temporary home. But I was at the washing station again and we managed to wash 9 birds before 13.00 ! That's a very good job! We're doing a good speed now. We have two stations, one washing station and one rinsing station. I work at the washing station with Suel from Burundi and Tania from Germany works at the rinsing station with the "newer" volounteers so she could teach them how to hold a bird properly during washing, as she did with me :)
I really enjoy it at the washing station since the people there are very easy to work with, we laugh and we joke about everything and it's a very main part of this progress, cleansing the birdies.

We had to clean one of the pools yesterday and we had two girls jumping into the pool bare-foot! Yuck! I couldn't because I have a slight infection in my pinky-toe and if I were to jump in there barefoot I would probably have to amputate my foot afterwards. We found a lost ring, discovered just how many ways you can scrape birdshit from the bottom of a pool with the help of some fire-men. And also we found time to do some physics experiments since our pump decided to stop working cause of air in the hose and shit. Fill the hose with water to press the air out of it and try again..

After that I went on doing some smaller tasks such as cleaning tents, making mash-food, talking to the vets and so on.. I had a very good time. And after that I managed to hitch-hike from Langesund to Stathelle with a guy who works in a county far north in Telemark and he's providing Langesund with manpower. He was just down there to decide salaries and such. A very nice man!

pictures 13/8 :)

We built this pool for the swan in tuesday, and yesterday we
could release him after washing and drying!

these are the "test pools" where we put the birds after washing
and drying first for a few hours and if they survive that well
they are put in the bigger pools :)

Rules for cleaning ;)

This is how it looks in the morning when we begin cleaning the tents in
the holding area. They are swamped with birds shit underneath... >_<

We move all the cages on one side to the middle and then clean,
wash and put anti-septic on the floors, move the cages back to
their places, take the other side and last but not least the middle.
I can't say I'm enjoying this type of work, but someone have to do
it in the morning..

The little birdies in one of the bigger pools. According to the
bird-expert we have here from Belgium, these birds are doing
just fine and we think they might be ready for releasing in a
few days. That is, if the bloodtests are good enough.

In the biggest pool. They are so incredibly beautiful...

As I said, see the colours? they're shifting from black to grey
to white to brown.. and it's all so perfectly made. I never thaught
I would be this close to wild birds like these and certainly
not imagine them being this beautiful and amazing.

Here is our male.. Our beautiful, gorgeous, stunning male!
He's a very shy young boy. I would imagine him being very
scared and confused, but if he survives these few days of blood
sampling and feeding he'll do just fine and survive!

There he is again, looking straight at me with his beautiful
long white neck, his mysterious black eyes with quite a sensual
look... Being this close to him really makes me understand
why swans are used as metaphors for something gorgeous...

Today was a quite interesting day. Got to the bird reception at 8 o'clock in the morning and we started right away with washing birds. There were two new volounteers today that could switch with us since the back hurts really much after holding birds in the same position for several hours. We managed to wash six birds before lunchbreak which is okay, not bad at all.

I'm working with a woman called Tanja Rigmann who is a chair member of Project Blue Sea from Germany. She's just the type of woman I want to become when I get older. I want to participate saving lives of animals, trying to maintain our beautiful environment on the earth for as long as possible. She's also a vegetarian and she has black dreads and all. Overall, she's really cool and nice to work with. She has taught me very much about washing birds and to really see them, not just wash them and get it overwith but to see every single bird as an individual and see the beauty of each bird we wash. Amazing!

I switched for another volounteer at noon and went for lunch. After lunch I was taking all these pictures, talking to other volounteers, cleaning up spaces and so on. We had a minor crisis when a tent fell down but we managed to hold it up by arms until the rescue came and fixed it for us - without stressing the birds to hard.

So, resting, showering, eating - time for sleeping for me! I'm going back to the birdwash-station at 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow morning again.
I hope that you guys, my family and friends are having a good time in Sweden and I'll see you soon! <3

Bilder 11/8 :)

The office and the sign of which organisations
who are sponsoring this action.
Greenpeace
SWAN
Naturvernsforbundet
NOAH
WWF
NNI
Norske ornitologiske forbundet

A simple list of the procedure the birds are
going trough from collection to release.

You must be silent around the birds.
Being caught in cages, sick and underfed
in an unnatural environment is stressful enough..

This is the "dirty area", where the
sick and unwashed birds are held.

Birdwashing! This is Eva and Suwell washing a bird from oil.
This is, if I remember correctly, is a young female.

After birds are washed they go to the "clean, no oil-station".

in the "clean no oil-area" there are huge hairdryers. We
put them in a cage straight after washing for drying.

After drying they are "released" in a pool for guarding.
We need to see that they survive a few hours in the pool,
gaining the fat in the feathers again. When they survive a
few hours they are there for a few days. After 4-5 days they
may be released in the wild again.

Some washed birdies, doing just fine!

These birds are much much happier than the ones at the "dirty area".
These ones get to play in the water with eachother, all cleaned up.

Once you get this close to them, you really notice the difference from bird to bird.
They are all extremely beautiful and amazing creatures.

Mission:Langesund

This is the blog I made just to write down everything about my trip to Langesund, Norway, participating in the rescuework from Full City. After a 15 hour long trip by train, metro, bus, train and bus I arrived in Stathelle - where my boyfriend lives - which is a mile from Halen Gård and the bay where the birds are taken care of.

I came to Halen Gård, where I sign up to be a volounteer, because this is all of course a non-paid job, I just do it to be able to save a few lives on our beautiful planet, and I had no idea at all what they might want me to do, but I went down to the bird-reception to see if I were any help there. I've been to this area before and I've seen the beauty of this part of Norway and of course I want to help out making sure it's not ruined for good.

The first thing we did was to put up tarps around the fences to make sure people can not see the birds neither talk to the volounteers about it. If they want to know they can come inside and help out. After that we did some cleaning around the area, making sure the "clean area" was clean and the "dirty area" - where the sick birds are held - was also as clean and hygienic as possible. Growing up with a nurse for a mother makes it much easier to spot what needs to be done and to know what sort of stuff you need to do before entering the clean area and so on. I give creds to my mother for that - thank you!
After the handyman-jobs we went out with boat to an island called Jomfruland (Virgin island). There were six of us walking around this quite big and beautiful island looking for dead birds and trying to spot oily birds.. and there were a few. We only found one dead bird though and I think all of us are pretty satisfied with those results. We would rather find one dead bird than a hundred of them...

We walked around the island for 4 hours and got ourselves a fine look of the oildamaged shores and really seeing how bad it really is. I never imagined this as a neat, nice and joyful job but I never expected to be THIS sad over how the shores and beaches looked at Jomfruland... Anyway, volounteers or not, we decided to go home when it started raining and shit, so yeah. Mission aborted really. The dead bird we found were placed in the freezing tent at the bird-reception with a mark on the bag, sounds really morbid but it's the way it has to be.

So.
After a nice shower, something to eat and a good night's sleep next to my boyfriend it was time for work. The schedule is 8-15.30 or 15.30-? but I mean, it's not like you HAVE TO be there, it's just good if they know appr. how many volounteers are there during the day. I chose the 8-15.30 shift since I want to get home early and rest and stuff.

at first we had to take all of the dirty sheets under the cages in the "dirty area" away. There are appr. 10 big cages so that took some time. We put away all the sheets and after putting in clean ones for the birdies we have to wipe the floors with soap and then pour anti-septic over the floors. That type of work really makes you wonder why the fuck you're there doing the shit, but once you look into the eyes of the birds lying in their cages you know why. We need to save their lives, urgently.

I got a few other duties as well, such as spraying the tents with cold water from a hose when it's sunny, to cool the temperature inside the tents. I also cut some fish to give the birds later. I got bored eventually so I started talking to the one who was in charge of the dirty area and said to her that I have some experience with bigger birds such as hens and cocks. She was thrilled and told me to go over to the vets and ask if they needed any help with the birds. There are not many people being allowed to hold the birds and help the vets, I'm among a few lucky ones!

I was assisting the german vet who came in today to the bird reception. I helped her taking blood tests, no bird is getting a wash without a blood test, we weighed them and we gave them food through sonds. We gave them electrolydes and mashed fish. Unfortunately, two birdies died this morning... so R.I.P B43 and B67 (their ring numbers). They were underfed due to their low apetite and they weighed just under 1,5 kilos each.. These birds should weigh over 2 kilos so that's pretty much telling it why they died.

After the lunchbreak, the head over the bird reception came up to me and said I had done a great job helding the birds and asked me if I wanted to join in at the wash station. I of course answered YES! and got my short but efficient education in bird washing. 2,5 hrs later we had speeded the washing station up to three birds in 2 hrs instead of one bird per hour. Pretty good work, if you ask me!

I honestly think that was it for today. I'll update tomorrow with some pictures as well.
Good Night!