November was busy at WBRGC with a total of 42 rescues.
In all I attended 10 pelican rescues during the month. A couple those birds were uncatchable and one died, however the rest were caught and had their injuries treated. As usual our old friends fishing line and fish hooks were top of the list for causing problems.
One pelican that I rescued was named Peaches. She turned up at a barbeque held by a group of Brazilian kids beside a canal in Mermaid Waters. They were lovely people and most concerned about the fishing line they could see around Peaches leg. By the time I arrived it was dark. That made catching her difficult. However, with much patience I eventually managed to grab Peaches by the snout and carry her up through the crowd stopping for a quick happy snap before four of us took her to the car for a preliminary examination. Our excitement soon turned to grave concern.
We found 4 hooks. One in her ankle; one in her knee and two in her left wing. All were attached to the same line. She’d probably been hooked a month ago and was now lame in her left leg. Sadly Peaches didn’t make it. She was just another senseless death caused by a fisherman who hooked her and didn’t have the decency or the courage to get her help.
On a lighter note … I fantasize that this lot are yelling … ‘we love Rowley’ … but somehow I doubt it. More likely it’s … ‘we want our Mum and we want bugs, and we want them now!’
It’s a nest of welcome swallows and these are just 4 of 15 baby swallows that I rescued during November at Southport Yacht Club where I live. Unfortunately none of these chicks will see their mum again. The problem being that parent swallows love to nest on boats.
I found the first nest tucked in the folds of my neighbours mainsail. Then I watched a parent enter a barbeque attached to his stern rail and yep, inside we found another nest with 4 chicks. Half an hour later I was told about a nest of three swallows tucked up under the pontoons of a boat in the hard stand area. Then a week later the guys in the hard stand area found a fourth nest under another pontoon boat.
Unfortunately for swallows boats do move around, but parent swallows will not translocate … not even one meter. Therefore the chicks I rescued had to go into care. I’m happy to report that all but the weakest survived.
Below is Buster, a newly fledged peregrine falcon.
If this picture looks a bit odd it’s because Buster is lying flat on his back in one of my capture boxes. But he ain’t relaxing. The look on Buster’s face says it all and I know what he’s thinking. ‘Touch me again and I’ll rip your bloody arms off!”. I had every reason to believe him, so I didn’t. I’d rescued Buster’s brother Pyewacket a few days earlier in the Main Beach area. Seams the two had come out of the nest a little early and weren’t coping. Both Buster and Pye were delivered to Currumbin Wildlife Hospital where they’re undergoing flight training.
Despite a couple of horrendous tragedies during November the little bloke below was one of dozens of memorable successes.
He’s a striated heron. They’re the funniest little fellows and very shy. We have a number of them living on the finger piers around Southport Yacht Club. They’re usually seen perched on mooring lines at night staring intently into the water waiting to strike at passing fish. Because of their hunched shoulders and stooped posture I’ve given them the collective name ‘Lurk’.
Lurk (at right) was found next to a canal in Mermaid Waters tethered to the callers fence by fishing line. He was lucky because these guys can be really hard to catch. I examined Lurk and found a wrap of heavy fishing line cutting deep into his ankle. This had caused a severe limp. It must have been very painful. But we got him just in time. Another few weeks and Lurk would have lost his foot, and as every striated heron will tell you, it’s very hard to do any serious lurking when you’re hopping around on one leg. Fortunately he was fine. I carefully cut away the line and released him immediately. Lurk fluttered off to fight another day. (By the way, never hold a heron of any type too close to your face or you could lose an eye!)
There was a great technical boost during November. Paul Luxford, our esteemed secretary on the WBRGC Donations Committee and also principal of Gold Coast Business Websites, very kindly added a brand new page to the website. Its entitled Feeding Native Birds. This is a great resource because now people who want to feed local birds, but don’t know what to give them, can access concise, accurate feeding instructions. We in wildlife care don’t recommend feeding any native bird but people who insist must at least give the birds the right food. I’m excited because I see so many swans being given damaging amounts of bread; pelicans being fed ‘dog roll’ and chicken; and lorikeets offered bread and honey. These foods are highly damaging to those species. Education is the key to changing people’s attitudes and now good information is available at https://wildbirdrescues.com.au/feeding-native-birds/ . Thank you to Liz, our Donations Committee treasurer and very experienced bird carer, who contributed to the info on the feeding sheets and corrected all my mistakes.
Anyone wanting a website built from the ground up, or seeking technical expertise, should get in touch with Paul. I can’t recommend his work more highly; the WBRGC website being a stellar example. Nor can he be beaten on price. 07-56606174. http://goldcoastbusinesswebsites.com.au/
Christmas is approaching and I’m pleased to say this usually means a reduction in rescues. Let’s hope so. To date this year I’ve attended more than 400 callouts. This has been possible thanks to my wonderful donors and members of the committee. Every month your help gets converted into tangible results. That means at least one hundred big birds, including pelicans, swans, egrets, ibis and cormorants, plus hundreds of little guys, are still flying this year and living their lives free of pain and suffering.
Rowley