pelicans

Thousands of baby pelicans grunt and hiss at their parents in tightly packed nests on Gaillard Island, a feathered paradise situated off the coast of Alabama.

Brown pelicans, long-necked egrets, flamingo-like roseate spoonbills and squawking seagulls fly lazily around a Texas Gulf Coast island.

Sixty-two brown pelicans en route to Texas aboard two Coast Guard cargo planes would be the largest release so far of pelicans rehabilitated after being contaminated in the continuing BP oil spill.

More than three dozen brown pelicans were cleared for takeoff Sunday when they were released along the Texas Gulf Coast after rehabilitation from a soaking in oil from the BP spill.

Pelicans rest near an oil slick boom off Bird Island Two June 14, 2010 in Grand Isle, Louisiana.

Inside a warehouse-turned-refugee encampment for animals soaked with oil, rescue teams wash acrid goo from the matted feathers of brown pelicans and other seabirds and try to nurse them to health.

They are the ghastly images of a summer fouled before it started. Squawking seagulls and majestic brown pelicans coated in oil.

California brown pelicans have recently been dying in large numbers for reasons wildlife officials don't yet fully understand.