A wildlife rescue group released 107 rehabilitated water birds Tuesday, including 56 that had fallen ill because of a botulism outbreak in an Orange County regional park.

“It was fabulous,” said Kelly Beavers, a wildlife technician at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach. “A few came out of the box and took off flying right away.”

The birds, all mallards except for one egret, were brought to the center in recent weeks, many exhausted, flopped over and near death. Volunteers and technicians fed and medicated them back to health, and on Tuesday they were freed at Talbert Nature Preserve  in Costa Mesa.

Twenty-one birds, mostly mallards, died in the outbreak; the care center has so far received 88 birds from the lake, Beavers said.

It was unclear whether the botulism outbreak in Laguna Niguel was tapering off, wildlife rescuers said. They are still receiving a few ducks a day from the lake; 11 sick birds from the lake are still being treated at the center.

Botulism outbreaks are known to occur in lakes in summer, when heat, low-oxygen and poor circulation can stimulate growth of the bacteria that produce the disease-causing toxin. Ducks and other birds acquire the toxin by eating maggots on rotting organic material, or even from the water itself.

McGuire has good reason to hope that the Laguna Niguel outbreak is winding down. On Tuesday, she said, at least four pelicans were being driven to the care center from the Salton Sea, also known for periodic outbreaks of botulism.

The birds at the Salton Sea typically become ill with botulism after feeding on dying fish, she said.

“It looks like easy feeding for them,” she said.

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• Update: Ducks still sick, dying from botulism outbreak
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