Rescued bird rehabilitated and released Sunday

BARRIE, ONT. -

After hundreds of dead birds have been found motionless, a majority dead, along the waters of Georgian Bay, there was a happy ending for one of those birds Sunday, thanks to a local animal rescue group.

Des Barnes is a retired fisherman who works with Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge. He and his team sprung into action earlier this month after a concerned resident in Tiny Township phoned them to help with one of the birds.

"This seagull here is just one of the unfortunate candidates that were affected by the botulism breakout that occurred up in Georgian Bay centring really between Tiny Township, Wasaga Beach and Collingwood," Barnes tells CTV News.

The quick-spreading botulism bacteria have poisoned the birds. It builds up in zebra mussels and round gobies, which are often eaten by fish and then spread to birds.

Barnes says the outbreak, mainly in the Tiny Township and Wasaga Beach area is hopefully at its end. However, he says it appears to be spreading to Collingwood and is imploring any passersby to reach out to Shades of Hope for help.

"It's the ones that make it to shore or the ones that are in the water, and they are only using their wings for mobility, are the ones that we can save. So what we need you to do is to secure the bird, even if it's putting a recycle bin over top of a bird until we can get somebody there to rescue it," Barnes says.

The group affectionately named the bird released today Woody. Over the last 10 days, the bird was tube fed with saline and dextrose to flush out its system.

Rescue missions like this are critical to the environment, says Master Naturalist Bob Bowles.

"This is really a community effort because government organizations, the people that are set up to monitor the birds and all that can't be everywhere at one place, so it's the community members and their efforts that are really bringing this forward and helping the birds," says Bowles.

For more information on how to contact Shades of Hope, click here.