Hi Everyone,
it was a busy month at WBRGC with a total of 51 rescues attended during November. The high number was due, in part, to baby birds coming out of the nest too early. Normally I don’t attend ground based rescues, but if it’s not too far away I’ll do my bit to help. An unusually high number of crows and currawongs came down.
This young crow was typical. Poor little bloke was only just ‘flight capable’ but slipped down a narrow gap between a fence and a neighbour’s back shed. Lucky for crows the whole family usually squawks their head off when one gets into trouble. Despite their ruckus
we think he might have been trapped down there for a couple of days. The bird was sent to hospital as a precaution.
Dixie the pelican with the broken wing, that I rescued off Curlew Island, continues to do well in SeaWorld. A compound fracture of the right wing would have been his undoing but the break was pinned and strapped by vet Dave and this gave Dixie a second chance at life. He’ll never fly again but will join other birds living with an infirmity at 
SeaWorld.
At left is Max, a white faced heron. He was found in a swimming pool enclosure along with one of his relies. The reli flew when approached, but Max couldn’t get airborne, so I caught and bundled him off to hospital. Unfortunately, upon release, he still was unable to fly, so back to hospital he went. I was already thinking ‘poisoning’. Two days later his reli was found, unable to fly and with a wound to the chest that suggested a dog bite. Probably bitten because it too was in difficulty. That bird also went to hospital. Three days after that, while at the hospital, I overheard a woman say she’d just brought in a white faced heron that couldn’t fly. I asked if the bird came from 
Tugun. It had. This meant that three herons, probably all from the same family, were now in hospital. It’s highly likely they’d all picked up a toxin. This is very sad because the vets can’t test for non-specific poisoning, so we may never know the cause.
On a brighter note … meet Popeye. He’s a young osprey that was found one very hot day cowering under a car on a road; a place that no osprey should be. Although young, Popeye didn’t look like a juvenile. Something else must have caused him to hit the deck. Fortunately Currumbin Wildlife Hospital specialise in raptors, so Popeye is in good hands. He’ll be released when well.
Misty was very lucky that caller Steve heard a commotion on the lake in front of his house, near to where kids had been fishing.
Next morning Misty, a local swan, couldn’t use her right leg and wouldn’t take food. I rushed out and caught her. She had a terrible entanglement of braid around her leg. The braid had only been on for 12 hours but she was in dreadful pain. Another two days and it would have been all over for Misty. The close-up shows the deep wrap of braid under the tip of my little finger.
That’s a fatal injury unless removed quickly. Misty spent five days in hospital before being released safe and sound.
I almost hesitate to include the pic at left but it’s something we catchers see all too often. This dear little wood duck must have walked through discarded fishing line some months ago and got it tangled around both of her feet. By the time she was reported the line had already amputated her right foot and was most of the way through her left ankle. It breaks my heart to see these injuries because she’d already suffered so much, and only two choices remained. Leave her and let the other foot amputate in its own time. Or, catch and put her to sleep. I chose the latter. I felt this was the kindest of two crappy options. She’d been living an isolated life without company and could only push forward on her tummy to feed. Really, it was no life at all, and only going to get worse. She was 
such a sweety.
There’s much happier news concerning Yuki, the ‘threatened’ beach stone-curlew I’ve had in hospital for almost three weeks. Yuki is exceeding all expectations and looks like he’ll keep his right foot. That foot had a life-threatening bone infection caused by wraps of fishing line. I’ve been taking live yabbies and crabs to Yuki. They’re his favourite foods. (I do feel a bit bad for the crustaceans but Yuki would be out there harvesting them anyway, if he was free) The other day, when I last saw him, Yuki was coming out of anaesthesia and looked like he’d just polished off a carton of XXXX. Minutes before vet Fumi had amputated the dodgy toe on this left foot. Notwithstanding any unforseen complications Yuki might be releasable in two weeks. After so long in hospital I was concerned he’d become humanised. This would threaten his survival in the wild. Vet nurse Amy assures me that Yuki is crankier than ever. That’s great news!
One day last week I had the pleasure of taking two vets, here on hols from the Canary Islands, out on some captures. At lunchtime we dropped into Charris Seafoods for their lunchtime pelican feed on the Labrador foreshore. Irene was delighted to have a chance to hand feed these big birds which they don’t have in the Canaries.
Also last week the Gold Coast environmental group Gecko
kindly awarded me a Golden Tailed Gecko at their recent awards ceremony. Thank you to everyone who attended, especially the people who nominated me. I was very impressed with Gecko’s lovely, rustic offices in Currumbin. The group does really good work. They have opportunities for people to join them and volunteer if any readers are interested.
Another enjoyable experience was releasing a mother pacific black duck and her eight ducklings that had to be caught in a swimming pool with the help of Fiona, who lives in the callers area. We released the birds nearby on the lovey lake at Pizzy Park. While there we enjoyed a visit from the resident pair of swans and their 3 month old cygnets. All looked happy and healthy. At that age the cygnets are safe from eels and should mature into lovely swans.
Now that we’re coming to the end of this report I confess to deliberately lulling you into a false sense of security. No doubt regular readers have been thinking … ‘thank God, he hasn’t shown us one, single manky ibis foot!’ Well, I’m sorry, but you’re not getting away with it that easily. In fact I’ve saved the best for last, although I concede this might not be everyone’s idea of ‘best’. Here it is! My ‘manky ibis foot of the month’ belongs to this lucky little fellow from whom I cut several deep wraps of fishing line. The caller had been feeding the bird for four months, knowing it was entangled and in pain. The creature was very lucky the line hadn’t cut off all its toes. Look closely and you can see the deep indent and dark ring around the root of the main toe where I’ve treated the area with iodine. The ibis was released immediately, no doubt feeling a lot more comfortable than it had in months.
As always, a big thank you to all who’ve donated to WBR. Your generosity helped me rescue the ten birds I’ve featured in this report plus forty one more during November. Thanks also to Jim Downs for his great generosity and to Liz and Paul on the Donations Committee.
As this is the last report before the end of the year I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Xmas.
Rowley
President, WBRGC