Save the Sea Birds!

This past Friday I had an amazing opportunity to volunteer at a sea turtle and sea bird rescue place. Sam, Olivia and I were picked up early in the morning to travel to Ballina where the center is. We have been there before for a field trip so we were a little familiar with the program. They had 7 sea turtles in different tanks and 6 birds (different species.) We helped weigh and feed the birds. One bird, Bob the spoonbill had been at the center for weeks and is almost ready to be released back into the wild...so, we went on an adventure looking for his new home. We drove around around the different water communities (one including the waste treatment plant...ew) looking for other spoonbills that could potentially be Bob's new friends. We were unsuccessful. When we got back to the center, it was feeding time. We had to force feed one really sick bird (the vet held it as we shoved tiny fish into it's beak.) And we got to hang out in Bob's cage and feed him (he did NOT need to be forced...he was very willing to eat...and nibble at EVERY THING! I didn't realize a bird could have so much personality!)
We also got to help the vet, Rosario feed some of the sea turtles. Rosario was from South America and had been volunteering there for only about 2 weeks. She did speak much English so I had fun attempting to speak some Spanish with her (I was not very good...haha)
Unfortunately, one of the sea turtles died while we were there. It was sad but we got to witness something pretty cool: a sea turtle autopsy. Richelle, a marine biologist and the owner of the center, cut open the turtle. We removed the intestine and squeezed out the waste inside looking for plastic or anything harmful that may have killed the turtle. Most turtles die from digesting plastic that had been thrown out to sea... but we didn't find any plastic in this guy so we're not sure what may have caused him to become so sick :(
It was such a cool experience being able to help at the rescue center. I think if I would have stuck to marine biology, that would have been my dream job!