Inkwatu

Surprising people visit the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. It’s been some time since I last visited there and many new condos have been built. After two drives of the entire length of barrier islands off St. Pete and failing to find the sanctuary, I stopped for a late breakfast. On the doubtful off-chance he may have heard of it, I asked the parking attendant—a walking advertisement for the volley ball playing beach bum lifestyle–if the Seabird Sanctuary still existed. “Oh, yeah! I was just there last week.”

When you get there, you’ll discover that it’s not just beach bum parking attendants and retired music professors who go there. Something about this place touches the heart of everyone. Every enclosure, facility, tree, tiki hut, and bench carries a memorial plaque that attests to the memory of people who loved the sanctuary and devoted parts of their lives and livelihood to its perpetuation. These aren’t just little “In memory of…” plaques, but plaques with a beautiful, touching paragraph describing real people who lived and loved these birds.

Their website says, “The sanctuary is the largest wild bird hospital and rehabilitation center in the United States, based on the admission of over 7,000 to 10,000 birds per year. For over 35 years, the Sanctuary has been a haven for birds of all kinds. The Sanctuary’s mission has always been dedicated to the rescue, repair, rehabilitation and release of healthy wild birds.”

Please check out their website. It has valuable information for residents and visitors to the Gulf Coast about what to do if you find a baby bird or how to help a hooked seabird. When you visit the sanctuary, you’ll find additional literature. One piece in particular that I found fascinating was a decision making flowchart for how to identify and help an injured bird. I was surprised: some of the directions are counter-intuitive.

Injured birds, their recovery, and eventual release to a free, wild life are what this place is all about. I think there’s something deeply symbolic about that mission that explains what has attracted so many donors and volunteers from such disparate lifestyles over the past 35+ years. Any attempt to analyze it would be incomplete, but certainly it must at least include a collective recognition of how humans owe reparation to helpless creatures who have been injured by our very existence. Admission is free to the Seabird Sanctuary, but when you visit, I guarantee you won’t pick the smallest bill in your wallet to stuff in the donations box.

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