Last Wednesday, I flew out to San Pedro, a district of Los Angeles, where International Bird Rescue is headquartered. Since OWCN is based in Davis (inland northern California), it relies on a network of partner facilities like IBR to remain ready to handle an oil spill anywhere in the state. When the Refugio spill occurred, IBR immediately scaled back its normal rehabilitation work to make room for oiled birds coming in from Santa Barbara, about two hours northwest of the facility. Many of the OWCN staff members arrived thinking the spill was about 500 barrels-- a few days' work at most. More than two weeks later, the total had mounted to 2,500 barrels, and they were still there.