We arrive at Indian Shores in time to watch a rescue on the beach: a pelican, caught in monofilament fishing line and pierced by hooks, is thrashing in confusion and pain. Ralph Heath (below), founder and director of the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, excuses himself from our group of vistors. In a few seconds he is down there helping two trained volunteers to disentangle the bird and give first aid. "A little rest and he'll be fine" Heath assures us.

Ralph Heath and Friend

At the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center in Travernier we arrive on a surgery morning. Dr. Robert Foley is setting the broken wing of a broad-wing hawk while Laura Quinn, founder and director, is instructing a high school intern in post-operative care.

Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, Miami, is a nonprofit seabird rehabilitation center for the Biscayne Bay area. In 20 years of operation they have accepted 5,426 injured seabirds, mostly brown pelicans. The facility is open to visitors dawn to dusk, but the best time is between 9 a.m. and noon or 2-5 p.m. when someone is usually available to answer questions and even walk you around the stations. Feeding times are 6:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Pelican Harbor Seabird Station is a great stop for families and is handicap accessible. No admission charge, but donantions are the only source of funds.

Thanks to facilities like these, the great birds of Florida have a chance to survive and the public to see and learn. At Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, located between St Petersburg and Clearwater on the Gulf coast, they have gone a step beyond rescue and rehabilitation. They now breed endangered species and have helped re-establish breeding populations of brown pelicans in Texas and Louisiana. They supply parks and zoos all over the world.

Though alike in goals and in the fact that both are nonprofits open free to the public, the two shelters are set up differently. Tavernier's Center has licensed rehabilitators working with local vetrinary clinics up and down the Keys; Indian Shores' Sanctuary has the nation's largest wild bird hospital and will soon expand the breeding program to 400 additional acres of donated environmentally-sensitive land 45 minutes away.

Spoonbills

An astonishing variety of sea and shore birds live in and pass through Florida. We see osprey, herons, terns, roseate spoonbills, white ibis, egrets, frigatebirds, pelicans, cormorants, hawks, loons, vultures, owls and songbirds. Sanctuary has a watchtower; Center has labeled nature trails and marked habitats.

Yellowcrowned Night Heron

Considering the hazards of their lives and the dearth of emergency care, the survival rate for hurt birds is remarkably high. Sanctuary treats about 5000 birds a year with 60 percent surviving, mostly to fly again. In 1994 -- only four years after its founding -- the Center rescued 1000 and released 300. In both, crippled birds become "permanent guests," given pet names and visited regularly by local residents and school children who have come to know them on field trips. At the Sanctuary, adult birds who will never fly again become foster parents to abandoned chicks.

Suncoast Sanctuary began in 1971 when a cormorant with a broken wing had the good fortune to be found by Ralph Heath. Heath took him to a vetrinarian friend who set the wing and sent the bird home with Heath for follow-up care. Laura Quinn began with a backyard rescue station then moved it to the present wetland location in 1990. Both facilities stress education as the key to saving birdlife. Power lines, windows and motor vehicles cause much of the carnage, but thoughtless fishermen are responsible for most injuries. Disposing of all fish line and plastics in a safe receptacle would prevent a lot of agony.

The Center's gulfside setting is divided into Habitats so birds are grouped with their natural companions. We meet an egret walking down the path and looking into cages. "He's visiting his friends in the hospital," Laura Quinn says. We notice that the great pens are open on top. Don't the birds fly away? "As soon as they're ready," she says. "They may try their wings a few times and return before they know they can make it."

Making it is what it's all about, and if you're visiting Florida you can see it happen.

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