California seabird specialists are swooping into Astoria on Saturday to help weary wildlife rehabilitators.
The workers have been overwhelmed by trying to help hundreds of seabirds injured off the Oregon and Washington coasts by recent algal blooms. Perhaps thousands more have died.
Experts from the California-based International Bird Rescue Research Center will take up to 200 birds from the Wildlife Center of the North Coast in Astoria and drive them to a facility in San Francisco for treatment.
About 100 other birds were sent to a center north of Seattle on Friday to relieve rehabilitators in Astoria.
