Oil in Pass a Loutre marshes. Photo by Kim Hubbard/Audubon Magazine

On Saturday, May 29, I was able to get an aerial view of the oil in the marshes and also of the spill site. It had just been discovered that "Top Kill" had failed, and we were told that the tight cluster of boats we saw around Deepwater Horizon was not an everyday scene.

Here's what we saw out of the window of the Sikorsky helicopter.

Customers in the Subway sandwich shop were about a mile away from where President Obama was speaking in Grand Isle, LA. Photo by Kim Hubbard/Audubon Magazine

Gretna, LA
11:07pm

President Obama came to Louisiana today to speak about the oil spill.

Oil reached Pass a Loutre marshes early this week. Photo by Kim Hubbard/Audubon Magazine

Gretna, LA
3:15pm

We went to Pass a Loutre on 5/21/10, just as the oil was beginning to enter the area. Here's what it looked like.

Biologists Jeff Taverner and Keith Cascio return to the Fisheries boat with the rescued pelican. Photo by Kim Hubbard/Audubon Magazine

Gretna, LA
9:13am

Yesterday we rode along with the Lousiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in their search for oiled birds. They discovered and rescued a Brown Pelican on a small, unnamed island in the Barataria Bay.

Workers deploy hard boom around an island containing a pelican nesting colony. Many of the pelicans are already oiled, including the one shown on the far right. Photo by Kim Hubbard/Audubon Magazine

Gretna, LA
7:14am

This story just keeps getting worse and worse. Yesterday we saw at least 25 oiled Pelicans in the Barataria Bay, along with oiled White Ibises and Laughing Gulls. Hard boom was being deployed, but it seemed too late, and futile.

Veterinarian Erica Miller (right) said this bird was particularly oily. The pelican was squirted with canola oil in preparation for cleaning. Photo by Kim Hubbard/Audubon Magazine

Gretna, LA
7:53am
We visited the oiled wildlife center in Fort Jackson, LA, yesterday, and were able to watch them clean a brown pelican that had been found by a rig near the oiled area 70 miles offshore. It was incredibly sad to see the birds this way, but it gave me a small amount of hope that at least a few can be saved.

Gretna, LA
3:11am

Another depressing day as I got an up-close look at the oil on Grand Isle, LA. This nightmare just gets worse and worse.

The oil on Grand Isle takes on many different forms, from fluid and runny to sticky and thick. It seems to be able to cling to anything. Photo by Kim Hubbard/Audubon

An oiled yearling loggerhead sea turtle awaits transport to the rehab center in Venice, LA.

Gretna, LA
1:54am

A mere five hours after my plane landed in Louisiana, I found myself standing by a dock in Cypress Cove Marina, photographing two oiled sea turtles who had just been rescued from the Gulf. After weeks of watching news of the oil spill from afar, it was suddenly all too real and I struggled to hold back tears. The turtles were obviously in distress, and it was completely heartbreaking to see. The thing we've all been fearing for so long is happening now--the creatures are paying the price for this debacle.

Bald eagles, by Rob Palmer

As the photo editor for Audubon magazine, I see great bird photos every day. When we decided to hold a bird photography contest, I wasn't sure what type of images we'd receive. I have to say that I was thrilled by the quality of the work that flooded in (16,000+ images!).