By Anna Driver

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VENICE La., June 5 (Reuters) – About 25 brown pelicans
shivered and tried to clean their oil-soaked feathers on
Saturday in a pen at a Louisiana bird rehabilitation center, as
the Gulf of Mexico oil spill’s impact on wildlife worsened.

The number of birds brought to the Fort Jackson Bird
Rehabilitation Center in Venice, Louisiana, where workers hired
by BP wash the birds, has jumped in the past two days as a huge
oil slick edges closer to vital nesting and breeding grounds.

A total of 157 birds found in state waters have been
treated at the center, where they receive a vigorous scrubbing,
since the oil started leaking from a ruptured BP (BP.L) (BP.N)
well almost seven weeks ago.

But 66 birds, mostly brown pelicans, arrived in just the
past two days, raising alarm bells. The brown pelican is
Louisiana’s state bird and only was taken off the endangered
species list just last year amid attempts to restore its
population.

“This could be a major setback for that effort,” said
James Harris, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service who has spent the last 20 years working with others to
restore Louisiana’s brown pelican population.

“I recognize that these are not my pelicans, but it’s hard
not to be personally vested in it.”

The birds brought to the center are plucked from oil soaked
waters that now ring Louisiana’s fragile barrier islands and
marshes. The feathers of oiled birds become matted and
separate, leaving them vulnerable to heat or cold.

They also try to preen, or clean their feathers with their
beak or bill, risking a sickening or fatal ingestion of oil.

The marshy areas around the rehabilitation center are so
far untouched by the slick, and are teeming with birds.
Snowy-white egrets peck at the ground or scan shallow waters
for food, while gulls and terns fly overhead.

But on Saturday, brisk winds pushed oil over some of the
containment booms meant to keep the crude away from the coast,
ringing a nearby brown pelican rookery and leaving the birds
standing in a watery crude oil soup.

“We are receiving birds today, but we don’t know how many,”
Jay Holcomb, executive director for the International Bird
Rescue Research Center told reporters. “This oil is really
gooey,” he added.

BATH OF LIFE

Once brought to the center, the birds are treated for
dehydration and other conditions and fed before the difficult
clean-up operation begins.

Because the crude that clings to the pelicans’ feathers is
so sticky, they are first bathed in warmed vegetable oil.

In the next step, workers armed with toothbrushes and
dishwashing liquid scrub the birds for about 45 minutes. The
brown pelicans, which have wingspans as wide as 8 feet (2.44
meters) typically struggle during the process.

After the birds are dried and receive a health check, they
are banded for identification purposes and flown to Florida by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The spill’s toll on the
Gulf coast bird population will not be known for some time –
for example, some rehabilitated birds may survive but might not
breed again.

“We really won’t know much until the next breeding season,”
Tom Bancroft, chief scientist for the National Audubon Society,
said in a telephone interview.

According to the latest report issued by the U.S.
government on Saturday, 547 birds across the Gulf coast have
been collected dead, but not all of those animals showed signs
of contact with oil.

But the government’s numbers tell only part of the story.
“Some (birds) just sink under the water and will never be
counted,” Bancroft said.

(Additional reporting by Sarah Irwin; Editing by Ros Krasny
and Paul Simao)