Wednesday 31 July 2013

Thank you



Without the help of our invaluable vets this very handsome boy could have died a slow horrible death.   

From the first sighting on the breakwall, with his leg hanging down, it appeared his leg was broken.  While I was waiting for a Australian Seabird Rescue team member, Kay, to help me I watched him with the binoculars and spotted a bit of blood at the top of his leg.  With all fingers crossed I hoped it was a hook and not a major infection.  Unable to put his foot down he was pushed around by the other birds and swam away looking very sad.  I couldn’t find him the next day but then he turned up again and our co-ordinator, Kirsten, and I luckily caught him.  However, the hook was so deeply imbedded I couldn’t feel the barb and so to the vet – the hook was attached to a cheapo ‘squiggy’ lure and  it appears that the fisherman had pulled so hard the hook was pointing backward deep in his leg which was only revealed by xray.  All this for a 50c lure. 

The hook is imbedded very deeply in this poor pelican.

Fortunately the vet was able to remove the hook and the pelican was successfully released.
         
Luckily the vet was able to remove the hook without surgery and even though the pelican looked calm he was in fact on the verge of going into shock.  With a very sore leg and a long term shot of antibiotics he was sent on his way.  A great rescue for a big mature male as the birds are mating at the moment.

Betty

Saturday 20 July 2013

Avoidable



Yet again another sad story that could have been so easily avoided.  This poor little guy was spotted at Kiama harbour south of Wollongong.  He has obviously been dangled in discarded line as it was the ‘new’ braided type which won’t break.  In his effort for freedom his right foot had almost been severed and the left foot the line had become so tight it cut off the circulation and caused gangrene.  The only outcome possible – euthanasia!  It is so easy not to litter yet we are still facing these problems.  Obviously you care or you wouldn’t be reading these stories, so please if you see litter, especially plastic and fishing line, pick it up and put it in the bin.  Every little bit helps.  Thank you.

Betty

Seagull with fishing line tangled around legs causing severe damage.

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Mrs Macronectes



The call came in to ASR South Coast at 4:30pm on 25/06/2013 from Trish of Potato Point. Peter took the call and rescued the unidentified seabird that was large and grey and was definitely not a cormorant. Peter soon worked out after a call to Betty and Lindsay that it was a Southern Giant Petrel (Macronectes giganteus) listed as endangered under the EPBC Act and under State legislation.

The next day she was expertly couriered down to me (Penny) in Bermagui
with a parting gift of 750g of chuck steak from Peter. A couple of more
phone calls later to Lindsay it was confirmed she was a first year female
fledgling that was exhausted and slightly underweight. Whilst in care she
ate, 2.3kg of steak, 250g octopus, 200g prawn, 3kg of pilchard, a HUGE
appetite! She was also very assertive around food by displaying her wings
with her head down all whilst walking towards me gurgling a petrel
noise.

"Mrs Macronectes" the Southern Giant Petrel in the care of Penny at Bermagui.



She was released 4 days later 3km offshore from Bermagui by a lovely
commercial fisherman on a gorgeous sunny Sunday morning. She was a little
dumbfounded when her webbed feet hit the water and perhaps a little bit
surprised and really quite unhappy about been handled again by those funny
smelling humans! It was a privilege and an honour to care for such an
amazing pelagic species. We also managed to see many other amazing
seabirds whilst out including loads of Australian Gannets.

The global population of M.giganteus is believed to be 62,000 with 31,300
breeding pairs with an estimated population decrease of 20% over the last
60 years and is continuing to be in rapid decline. There are believed to
be 7,090 breeding pairs in Australian territories and only breed on sub
Antarctic or Antarctic Islands such as Macquarie Island 1300km south of
Tasmania.

Once they have fledged (after approximately 60 days incubation and 115
days to reach their fledged weight) they disperse and do not land on land
until they reach sexual maturity approximately 6-7 years of age.

They are opportunistic predators with a preference for penguin carcasses,
with 82% of their diet consisting of birds, 4.7% penguins and the
remainder crustaceans, euphausiids, fish, cephalopods and mammals. They
locate food by smell and are known to hunt day or night particularly when
they have chicks to feed. Their biggest threat is from long line fishing
as by-catch when lines are set or ingesting hooks that are discarded,
fisherman, petrels and albatross are found around aggregations of food
such as krill and will therefore always interact with each other.

She was a beautiful and amazing petrel who clearly thought she was much
higher on the hierarchy than me even though I was taller!

Penny 

Penny releasing Mrs Macronectes 3km offshore of Bermagui

 

Monday 1 July 2013

Rain- Hail- or Shine!



Wow- a big low-pressure system off the NSW coast on 24th of June produced some filthy weather with torrential rain and winds.  But a phone call from a Kiama resident regarding a dolphin in trouble got everyone jumping. A quick phone call was made to O.R.C.A, and also to our Australian Seabrid Rescue team members Kay and David, who got on the road immediately despite Kay having a dose of the flu. They met up with the O.R.C.A representative to guard and monitor the dolphin who was in a bad way whilst waiting for National Parks to arrive. Whilst they were there a call came in fro Kiama Vet that someone has bought in a small seabird. So off Kay went to collect it leaving David in the rain. This little one is an Antarctic Prion and is now in care, the obviously filthy weather blew him off course. Sadly, the dolphin didn’t make it.

A big thanks to Kay and David for their efforts, and for delivering the little Prion to me for rehabilitation. We rely on the caring public to keep an eye out for wildlife in trouble- although we’d love to- we can’t be everywhere all the time, so thank you!