Birds of prey clinic model in Southeast

1999 oil spill led to center's creation

AWENDAW — Grace Gasper, medical director at the International Center for Birds of Prey, cut the bandage from her sleeping patient and unfolded its wing.

The owl, struck by a car near Mount Pleasant, was one of the first patients to receive treatment in the Birds of Prey's new Avian Medical Center and Oiled Bird Treatment Facility.

Birds moved from a converted Sunday school building into the new facility Oct. 3, but the nonprofit agency held a ceremony Monday dedicating the opening as eagles and turkey vultures soared above.

A 1999 tanker accident in which 194 birds covered in oil washed up on South Carolina's beaches led to the construction of the $1.8 million treatment facility.

The state found the shipping line responsible for the offshore oil spill and, through an agreement, the company paid the state $2 million. Gov. Mark Sanford signed a bill allowing the funds to be funneled to the center through a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and S.C. Department of Natural Resources grant to build the 7,000-square-foot Awendaw facility.

The avian center will treat injured and orphaned birds on a daily basis and become the primary treatment facility in the event of an oil spill in the Southeast. The new medical center is part of a proposed $9 million campus. The organization needs $3 million to finish the job.

The 1999 oil spill made it clear that dedicated space was needed in the event of a future disaster, said Diane Duncan, of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Hundreds of volunteers came out to help the birds.

"What we realized from that process is that we didn't have a place to treat these birds," Duncan said.

Feathers covered in oil lose their waterproofing ability and birds become ill with either hypothermia or by ingesting oil when preening feathers, said Ed Duncan, DNR environmental program director.

"We get a lot of oiled birds in patches," he said.

But the owl Gasper treated after the ceremony is much more characteristic of the 400 sick, orphaned or injured birds the center treats each year.

Injuries caused by passing motorists are among the most common treated by the Birds of Prey medical center director.

Trash left near roadsides attracts rodents and the birds that hunt them.

This owl had both wing and eye damage and will heal in the next few weeks before returning to the wild. Gasper stretched its wing to keep it flexible as it healed.

The owl might have survived without the center, Gasper said, but many birds come in near starvation with an old injury that hampered their hunting ability.

Reach Jessica Johnson at jjohnson@postandcourier.com or 937-5921.