March was reasonably brisk at WBRGC with a total of 38 rescues. This is about average. It’s up 20% on last month but less than the busier months of winter.
From now on the Capture Reports will offer fewer stories. That’s because stories and pictures are now posted almost daily on the new Wild Bird Rescues GOLD COAST Facebook page. By LIKING the Facebook page you can stay abreast of the action as it happens!
Lots of good things happened during March. There was the release of Ella, the badly injured pelican from Jacobs Well. She had little hope of recovering her flight capability after fishing line had cut through tendons on the leading edge of her wing. But the dedicated staff at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital nursed Ella back to health and after 17 days of treatment I had the pleasure of releasing her and watching as she lifted off in graceful flight.
Another major success was getting my hands on one of the ospreys from the Sundale Bridge nesting tower after it had flown through fishing line and become hopelessly entangled. The fishers who owned the line immediately called for help, effectively saving another very precious bird from a potentially life threatening injury. Well done Travis and Nathan.
Early in the month I grabbed Ting Ting’s mother Lynda and took her to hospital to have her feathers trimmed. Lynda has ‘angel wing’, a condition that can occur when swans receive too much protein, usually from bread. This causes the last joint on one or both wings to deform so that feathers grow out sideways. Birds with angel wing will never fly. One could make a strong case for putting them to sleep so as to remove them from the gene pool. But instead we do our best to accommodate birds with angel wing, even though they are always getting into trouble.
The disappointing thing about March was the number of line entangled birds that I was unable to catch. Normally my capture rate for ‘flight capable’ birds is around 90%. In March it plummeted to 60%. The ibis had the worst of it. I think in total I attended eight ibis that had fishing line entanglements and a ninth with a lure high in its thigh. So far I’ve only been able to catch three of those birds … a dismal result. It hasn’t been for lack of trying. You need luck in this game. Doesn’t matter how experienced you are, if luck is not with you a thousand things can go wrong. Everything can be looking sweet and then a child will run through your carefully laid snare … or a puppy will come charging through … or a person 100m away will suddenly toss a loaf of bread and the sick bird that you’ve just spent the last hour coaxing closer will fly over and fill up on that bread, making it virtually uncatchable.
Then there are those ibis present when one of their mates gets caught. The survivors immediately pull out their mental ‘laptop’ and make a digital note, accompanied by graphic photographs of you, stamped with the words, ‘not to be trusted’. If you continue to turn up in their area acting ‘strange’ they instantly sound an alarm so that every ibis in the area goes on the alert. It’s gotten so bad with some of the entangled birds I’ve been after that I can’t even pull up in my car before the look on their face says, ‘oh, no, it’s him again’ and they promptly bail out. Very frustrating! On the plus side, most of these ‘uncatchables’ have non-life threatening entanglements around their toes. The fishing line will amputate those toes but the birds will survive. The ibis with the hook in his thigh might not. It grates knowing that the lure has been deliberately cast at that bird by some clown who probably thinks it’s funny.
It was good to see young Twinkle, the 2 month old cygnet that I found gagging on fishing line, eventually arrive in care with ‘The Twins’. They are established bird carers from Landsborough, up near Australia Zoo. Twinkle had had a very rough two weeks. Risky surgery saw several feet of line removed from his gizzard. Then he spent nine days in recovery, followed by what at first appeared to be a successful release back with his parents and two siblings. But within an hour their re-union had gone seriously pear shaped and the whole family turned on Twinkle and attacked him. This is a common outcome when a cygnet spends more than 24 hours away from its family. Poor little fellow could only run. Luckily I was alerted and located Twinkle well offshore with his Dad in hot pursuit. He was re-captured leaving only one option which was to go into care until he can be released as a mature bird.
As always, thank you to Jim Downs; members of the committee (Paul and Liz); and to the two people who very kindly supported my capture work by sending a donation. You guys make it work!!
See all the action from March at Wild Bird Rescues GOLD COAST Facebook.
Rowley WBRGC, President