Digital Extra

"It smells like we're in trouble," New Shoreham First Warden Edward McGovern said to himself, heading for the beach.

Half a mile inland, near the large Victorian-style hotels of Old Harbor, John Foster sniffed the southeasterly breeze after breakfast.

"I went out the back door to empty the garbage, and I smelled heating oil," said Foster, a computer expert and part-time cab driver. "I went to the basement to check the tank."

It was several moments before Foster realized the ocean bore tidings of ecological catastrophe 12 miles away, on the other side of Block Island Sound.

Residents who rushed onto the beaches Sunday morning were relieved to learn, however, that the intrusion on Block Island's quiet winter routine was not a direct hit -- at least not yet.

Long fingers of oil stretched off the eastern shore, brushing it in spots but failing to gain a firm grasp. Dozens of square miles of oil remained off to the north.

The most visible damage on Block Island's shore was represented by a handful of stricken loons, grebes and eider ducks. They were rescued by some of the dozens of volunteers who worked through the day, preparing for the worst.

"Block Island is lucky at this point," McGovern said Sunday afternoon. "We're not out of the woods yet."

From the air over Block Island Sound Sunday afternoon, the shimmering oil plumes, chopped by waves, looked like quartz veins running though dark marble. Denser sections, near the heart of the spill to the north, formed a solid sheen.

Experts predicted Block Island's eastern shore would remain in considerable danger Monday, and a shift in the wind to the northwest could bring trouble down on the western shore -- toward the mouth of Great Salt Pond, which harbors delicate marshes and shellfish.

Town officials and volunteers worked throughout Saturday night and Sunday stringing a pair of oil-blocking booms across the mouth of the pond, just in case the oil shifted direction.

They planned to monitor the booms all night last night, to make sure they remained intact and in place.

Ken Lacoste, owner of Block Island Marine, was among the volunteers stringing a white absorbent boom and an orange containment boom across the entrance. At 5 p.m., after working nearly 11 hours, Lacoste tied off a stray line to the pole of a volleyball net on shore.

"It's the heart of the island," Lacoste said of Great Salt Pond, also known as New Harbor. "We've accomplished a little bit, anyway. We're just hoping it can do some good."

Officials planned to bring 300 more feet of containment booms on the first ferry from Point Judith this morning.

Island residents pulled together to help, with dozens of private citizens driving the beaches in a search for oil-soaked birds. The few birds they found they brought to a makeshift emergency room, set up in the fire and police station, next to Block Island Engine 1.

Veterinarian Liz Campbell, of the South Bay Veterinary Center in Narragansett, came to Block Island to help volunteers -- both adults and children -- warm the loons and grebes that were brought in and inject them with fluids.

In all, four birds were placed in pet carriers and flown out on New England Airways flights to be cleaned in Narragansett. Dead birds were placed in plastic bags.

Mostly, the islanders remained practical and stuck to the business of helping birds and preparing the island for trouble. But they also began raising questions about the spill and the cleanup efforts.

"Someone has to answer about what they were doing with all that toxic material in that kind of weather," McGovern said. "Everyone is questioning what is a boat pulling 4 million gallons of oil doing in 10- to 15-foot seas and 60 miles an hour of wind?"

Christopher Littlefield, the Nature Conservancy's bioreserve manager for Block Island, who helped identify some of the dead waterfowl, said people also were wondering why the oil was allowed to spread on Saturday.

"We're not seeing dead lobsters yet, and hopefully we won't," said Littlefield. But, he added, "I think people are pretty upset. A lot of people felt [Saturday] was the day to get things done."

Todd Corayer offered up one of the day's wry observations.

A resident who helped rescue and care for birds, Corayer said Block Island used to import its gasoline and fuel oil by barge. But the practice was stopped; it was deemed a potential environmental hazard.

"It's kind of ironic," he said, "that after they terminated that, we get hit with this."