I’m writing this month’s capture report on board a Qantas A330 high above the Nullarbor Plain while flying home to Perth to spend Xmas with my family. It’s the first time I’ve been back in eight years and I’m so looking forward to seeing everyone.
December was fairly busy at WBRGC with a total of 32 rescues for the first 23 days of the month. As always there were many memorable experiences.
Cindy the oyster catcher was in a bad way when finally, after three days hunting, I managed to get my hands on her. Something had gone very wrong with her left foot. It appeared to be dying. Even the vets at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital were unsure of the cause. Amputation above the left knee looked to be her only hope. Oyster catchers can manage on one leg and being a semi threatened species (and my favourite birds) the hospital will do all they can to preserve their life.
In the three weeks since being hospitalised Cindy’s had her middle toe removed and she’s lost a couple joints on her inside toe. The stump of her left foot is healing reasonably well. If the treatment is successful it will leave her with something to walk on and be a far better outcome than a full amputation.
Cindy is a survivor and she’s doing OK, but the final outcome is yet to be seen. In the meantime her appetite for whitebait, mussels and prawns has racked up a food bill that has sent the hospital’s accounts staff into a tail spin. Go Cindy!
Injured gulls featured quite prominently this month.
The bird at right had a hook in her eyelid and two hooks in her upper left wing. All were fairly superficial and easily removed. Had that hook near the eye been 5mm deeper it would have been an entirely different matter.
I released the bird after a quick examination believing I’d gotten out all of the hooks. However, rather than flying off immediately she slowly limped away. This was not good. I managed to net her again and after a thorough examination discovered a deep wound in the feathers under her left thigh, no doubt caused by a fourth hook that had already come free. She was admitted to hospital where she is expected to make a full recovery.
At left is the newly sworn in Wild Bird Rescues Junior Capture Team. As you can see from their smiles they are an enthusiastic bunch.
‘The Team’ spotted a swan in the water at the front of their house and were concerned to see a red and white fishing float attached to the bird’s leg. I was called to help. Half an hour later we’d secured the swan and got to work to cut the life threatening wraps of fishing line from the lower part of her right leg. Then after much patting she was released back into the water to re-join her family.
The distressing things is this was the second swan with a red fishing float that I’d caught in the same area in the past two days. Clearly some idiot had been hooking swans and not calling to get them assistance. Unfortunately this is typical fisher behaviour. Hook ‘em; cut ‘em free; go home and forget about it. So irresponsible.
Around the middle of the month I had occasion to rescue two of my dear old friends. The first is a swan named Karl. He and I first met 8 years ago when I found Karl with a very serious open wound to his left flank. Mic Pine, head vet at CWH sewed him up and against all odds Karl survived. A few years ago I caught him again when he got a fish hook in his backside. Judging by the limp it must have been painful. What made the rescue even more interesting is that I had to catch all of Karl’s current brood of cygnets at the same time; four in total (easier said than done). It wouldn’t be safe to leave them without their father’s protection on an open canal.
I bundled Karl and the kids off to hospital where the hook was removed. An hour later all were back on their favourite Mermaid waterway.
Karla, his partner, was still missing, having been hooked herself and last seen towing their fifth cygnet, now deceased, behind her, while frantically trying to get free of the line. To everyone’s relief she turned up two days later without the cygnet. I caught her and removed the rest of the fishing line.
Last year Karl presented with a compound fracture of his right lateral toe. It was a nasty break and obviously very painful. Fumi at the hospital performed a skilful amputation and after weeks in recovery Karl was good to go. I released him at the pair’s current nest site where Karla had performed the extraordinary feat of sitting on their four eggs, alone, for three whole weeks, while Karl was in hospital. There was much trumpeting and neck bobbing at their joyful re-union. Miraculously the eggs began hatching within four hours of Karl’s return. By the next morning the pair had four new cygnets … a wonderful outcome indeed.
Unfortunately I had to attend to Karl again last week. He’s in hospital after being found crippled with bumble foot under his left pad and a very swollen right ankle. This time he’s in real trouble but the vets are doing all they can and we remain hopeful.
The second of my old friends was Graham, a swan from the Botanic Gardens in Ashmore.
I’d received a call at 6am from a man who said that a swan with a droopy right wing (Graham) had fishing line hanging from that wing. I raced out to the Gardens and quickly located Graham and his partner.
I first rescued Graham 3 years ago when he was a resident of Pizzy Park and the second of five swans to fall victim to dog attacks by off leash animals exercising around the park. Graham was very lucky to survive. Two of the others didn’t.
On this morning in the Botanic Gardens Graham came strutting out of the water only to be grabbed by the neck and pinned down while I frisked him thoroughly for line. Luckily there was none. I don’t mind false alarms like that. Better to check and find nothing than to end up a month later with a bird in desperate trouble because a wrap of fishing line is slowly cutting off its wing.
My Call of the Month Award goes to the guy who phoned in a panic to report an eagle trapped in a tree in Robina. He said the bird was caught on a platform stuck between the fork of two branches. Apparently it was only 6 feet above the ground, which made for easy access. I hoped it might be Robbie the sea eagle, missing since we released her two months ago. I rushed to my car, but as I was getting in the man called back, very apologetic, to say that a neighbour had seen him looking at the eagle and had come over to explain that it was a stuffed replica someone had mounted on a platform and wedged in the tree. Never a dull moment in this game!
This week I posted the latest Wild Bird Rescues video clip on YouTube. It features a young swan called Ting Ting that I rescued three months ago after she was found with fishing line coming from her mouth. This meant there was a hook down her throat. She also had line wrapped all around her body. Despite these serious circumstances there is a happy outcome to the story. You can view the clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkWOTazS7B4
I had to catch Ting Ting again just last week. She’s a young adult now although still only 5 months old. She’d strayed into the territory of a powerful pair of swans (big mistake) that became fully intent on beating her to death. I arrived quickly and drove off the aggressive pair and then helped her back into the water. She was shaken but OK. Ting Ting is recognisable because she has a broken neck. It’s an old injury and the kink in her neck doesn’t seem to cause her any problems.
The last piece of exciting news is that Rhonda McLean and our esteemed WBRGC Donations Secretary Mr Paul Luxford have nominated me for a Gold Coast Australia Day Community Award. I’m deeply touched. The ceremony is to be held on Friday morning the 16th January, 2015. Go the poultry!!
I’ve just completed all records for the year which show that I attended a total of 438 captures during 2014. This included 55 pelicans, 97 swans, 66 ibis and 38 ducks. It’s quite a lot when you consider that many of those birds were ‘flight capable’ meaning they required far more time and effort than routine rescues.
As always, a special thanks to my small band of generous donors and my friends on the Wild Bird Rescues Donations Committee. You guys and girls make all of this possible.
I hope you had a very Merry Xmas and wish you a Happy New Year. I’ll be back on duty bright and early on the 2nd of Jan, 2015.
Rowley
WBRGC President