The bird is the word at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, a beachfront avian rehabilitation center in Indian Shores, Fla., tucked along the Gulf of Mexico in the St. Petersburg metro area. It is a labor of love for founder Ralph Heath, a man who, to paraphrase Will Rogers, never met a bird he didn't like. Make that never met an animal he didn't like. As a child, Heath watched his surgeon father take a break from humans to mend birds, frogs, snakes, and other injured animals.
Heath was working hard to be a professional beach bum, selling driftwood lamps in the early 1970s, when he stumbled on an injured cormorant he named Maynard. After a veterinarian friend performed surgery, Heath took Maynard home for rest and recuperation. Shortly afterward, a friend brought Heath an injured seagull. Not long after that, other friends brought him a wounded pelican. That was the beginning of the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary.
Today, based on the 6,000 to 10,000 injured birds admitted annually, Heath and his staff refer to this bird hospital and assisted-living center as the largest such complex in the world. The ultimate goal is to release as many birds as possible into the wild, with hopes of placing each in its appropriate habitat. The birds that can't be released become permanent sanctuary residents.
Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary guided tours last about 45 minutes. Our guide, Ryan Graham, garbed in his work attire - shorts, sneakers, and a T-shirt reading "I'm for the birds" - explained that male pelicans have longer beaks than females, and that in the wild mothers feed their young by means of regurgitation. Ewww! He also told us that northern gannets, with wingspans of six feet, can reach speeds of 60 to 70 m.p.h. when diving for food. And Jeffrey, a resident crow, part of the mynah family, can utter "Let's go" and "It's a crow."
