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!