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A Dunlin shorebird slowly and cautiously makes its way to the water after being released by the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at Eastshore Park in Berkeley, Calif. on Friday Nov. 13, 2009. The Dunlin was one of 14 birds released including 11 American Coots, 2 Dunlin shorebirds and 1 Surf Scoter all of which had been impacted by the oil spill from the Dubai Star in the San Francisco Bay. (Laura A. Oda/Staff)

BERKELEY — After some gentle coaxing to leave their carrier boxes, a surf scoter, a Dunlin shorebird and 11 American coots scooted across the still waters off a rocky Berkeley shoreline Friday afternoon, free of the thick globs of oil that nearly killed them just two weeks earlier.

In the days following the Oct. 30 oil spill in the Bay, when 400 to 800 gallons of bunker fuel seeped into the water from the Panamanian-flagged Dubai Star after a line ruptured during a fuel transfer, 20 dead birds were collected — mostly along Alameda beaches — and 49 live oiled birds were recovered. They were taken to the Oiled Wildlife Care Network's center in Cordelia. Of those, 17 later died or had to be euthanized, said the care network's director, Mike Ziccardi.

"The first thing we do as quickly as possible after a spill like that is capture oiled birds out of the environment. They're more likely to survive the sooner we get to them," Ziccardi said. "We immediately administer first aid, get them warm, get fluids into them. Then once at the facility, we do a full medical evaluation, give them good nutrition and, once they're stable, we clean off the oil. In five days to two or three weeks, they usually regain their waterproofing and their health."

Workers from the care network, the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Coast Guard released 10 birds earlier this week, and a few still remain at the care facility until they are ready

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to go back in the water. The birds released Friday were found on Halloween or Nov. 1 in Alameda, mostly along Crown Beach, Ziccardi said.

Lt. Rob Roberts with the Department of Fish and Game said authorities are still investigating the spill, believed to have been caused by a mechanical failure.

Some cleanup still continues, he said. Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland and Encinal Beach at Alameda Point are now open. But Crown Beach in Alameda and the boat ramps at Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park in Oakland remain closed. They are currently being evaluated for reopening, Roberts said. Shoreline fishing and shellfish harvesting remains closed along the Bay from Alameda Point to the southern boundary of the Oakland airport.