INEXORABLE: SHOT!

AUSTRALIAN SEABIRD RESCUE South Coast team member, Lisa, was asked to look out for a pelican (about an hour south of Wollongong) which had a lot of fishing line around his legs and was having trouble walking.

Whilst looking for this bird she spotted a female pelican with holes on both sides of her pouch and a nasty wound to her head.

Having already met Lisa half way to collect a big male with a swollen leg that she and ASR Clare had caught and were bringing back to Wollongong, we decided if she caught the female with the holes we would ask our good mate Judy at Pyree who is with Wildlife Rescue South Coast to babysit her overnight.

Well, Lisa, caught the bird and Judy ‘baby sat’ her and kindly transported her half way to Wollongong for team member, Julie, to go down and collect her next morning.

Great team work all round and thank you everyone.

The bird has now had an operation to repair the damage, but, WHY!   The injuries were confirmed by the vet to be a BULLET!  What sort of satisfaction could this lowest form of humanity get out of shooting a harmless, defenceless creature.  She will recover but it should never have happened and one shudders at the cruelty of this warped mind for cheap thrills.

Pelican with bullet holes in pouch

By the way, Lisa, went back and caught the original bird – fixed him up and released him.  Well done, Lisa, three birds in one morning.

Thank you again, Judy (Wildlife Rescue) for housing the bird overnight and to Julie (ASR and Wildlife Rescue) for collecting her.  She is now in care for 10 days with stitches that need to heal.

Once again, if anyone sees or hears of cruelty against our wildlife both aquatic and terrestrial, please contact the Police and Australian Seabird Rescue or Wildlife Rescue who will rescue the animal – even if you think it is a false alarm.

We would rather go to ten false alarms than one dead creature.

Betty

How did this happen?

A late call came in about a pelican in trouble. I jumped on the phone to new Australian Seabird Rescue team member Hanna (being the closest) who didn’t hesitate to come and help.

A very big very handsome pelican somehow found this 7cm shark hook with a 28cm skin of a fish attached embedded in his side.

Mysteriously no line attached to the hook!

Large hook with skin attached embedded in the side of a pelican.

Has some fisherman been cleaning fish and thrown this hook with no care or more likely Mr Pelican has taken someone’s fish out of the sea and they have cut the line?

Either way – why!

The weight and size of the hook had torn the birds side as well as the length of the fish skin causing him to tread on it aggravating the situation.

Unfortunately they had been fed and weren’t interested in what we had to offer. So next morning team member Julie and I returned and caught him quickly.

This injury could have been so easily avoided. Please enjoy your fishing but be careful and do not feed the birds. Let them go back to the wild and hopefully stay out of trouble.

Thanks again to Julie and Hanna.

Betty

Welcome Jules

A desperate call came in to Australian Seabird Rescue about a pelican unable to move very much and blood on its wing, located on an island in Lake Illawarra. It was freezing cold and gale force winds but the bird had to be rescued. With only 2 experienced kayakers (one at work and the other hesitant) and me not well enough to even attempt it – a dilemma!

I remembered that new team member Julie mentioned she had a kayak. I rang to see if she could help. Without hesitation she said yes even after I said she was going to get cold and wet. So off we went, 2 on the kayak to the island. This poor female had her right wing smashed and almost severed. Without any trouble we picked her up and Julie paddled us back to land then off to the vet to be sadly euthanized.  Presumably she had been blown in to the bridge or an overhead cable that straddles the lake. But without Julies help she would have died a slow horrible death as the ravens would have found her. So a big thank you to Julie and welcome aboard.

Betty

Heinous Act

Well I feel this picture should be seen and maybe just maybe this sort of thing will be reported if witnessed or by someone with a knowledge of the act and the monster taken to court. All birds are protected under the wildlife act.

Pelican with horrific injuries after being run over by a boat.

A call came in to Australian Seabird Rescue at 8am reporting a pelican in the water covered in blood. Unsure how far from shore I asked our co-ordinator Kirsten to meet in case we needed the kayak to reach the bird. On arrival I could see how bad she was so just waded in and carried her to shore to wait for Kirsten.

This poor little female has been deliberately run over by a boat and left floating bleeding and still alive. It had to be deliberate as in broad daylight it’s impossible to say you didn’t see the bird. The way she was torn to pieces by the propeller would have been very noisy also and to just continue and leave this poor bird in horrific pain is totally unforgivable. In my 10 ½ years with ASR I’ve seen some terrible injuries but this will remain with me forever that someone could do this. Kirsten was affected in the same way.

Please if you see or hear of any sort of cruelty or mistreatment report it immediately even if you think it may be a false alarm.

Betty.

Sydney Fish Markets

A call from Australian Seabird Rescue team member Silke, North Sydney came to me regarding a pelican at the Sydney Fish Markets with about 8cm of his top beak missing. On seeing the photo sent to me it was obvious this bird was going to be in a lot of trouble in a short space of time.  Being an hour and a half from

Wollongong it was difficult to co-ordinate.

Co ordinator Kirsten and team member Nikki attended on the Monday but were unsuccessful with the bird not wanting to leave the safety of the harbour.

So Kirsten and I went up on the following Thursday and it broke my heart to see this poor bird about 8 months old trying to retrieve scraps thrown to him from the café public having to put his head on the side under the water to scoop up the scraps. There was no way I was going home without him.

So off we went down on the oyster laden rocks to entice him with our yummy flathead. He was hungry poor thing so he was in my arms within 5 minutes.

Unfortunately with nothing that could be done for him he was taken to the vets and euthanized.

He was in a poor condition being unable to preen, no feathers under his wing making him not waterproof. He would have died a slow horrible death from hypothermia and possible starvation from incorrect diet.

Easily avoided of course if people would only stop feeding these birds and making them people friendly perhaps they may return to the wild and this sort of cruel injury would not occur. It was confirmed by the veterinarian that the injury was caused by a KNIFE.

A very sad outcome for this very handsome very young bird

Betty

KIWI SURPRISE

A call came in to Australian Seabird Rescue from a Sussex Inlet resident advising of a pelican with line around its leg. Sussex Inlet is approximately 2 hours south of Wollongong and 1 hour south of Nowra. 

So onto the phone to team member Lisa who lives on the coast near Nowra. She was on holiday in Queensland waiting for a flight home as the state was experiencing flash flooding but said she’d go as soon as she got home.  A big thank you Lisa as no one else was available.

So with her visiting friend from New Zealand off they went but couldn’t find the bird in the massive waterways of the inlet so headed home. But just as she turned on the main highway the fellow rang and said the bird had showed up-so a quick u turn back they went and there he was waiting for them.

The Kiwi caught the bird!!!!!!

After removing the line and checking the bird over and I’m sure some photos to take home he was happily released.

I told her if ever she moved “across the ditch” we would love to have her join us!

Thank you girls well done

Betty

SPARKIE

An early morning call to Australian Seabird Rescue from a fisherman, Gordon came in about a pelican trapped for a couple of days in the cold water channel at the district power station.

My rescue buddy Oliver was unavailable so I asked if Gordon call help me and off I went with ropes and anything else I could think of. Of course the power station is under heavy security with locked gates everywhere so with a band of workers headed by foreman Warren we followed her down. This channel is quite long very deep and about a 4ft drop down straight sides to the water with a grate at the inlet end and a filter at the other end. The poor thing was snookered- we tried everything.

Warren was going to cut a hole in the security fence but I called the Fire Brigade to see if they could help and with a great big thank you to the men we all put our heads together to work out the best plan of action.

She’d turned and swam back to the inlet-now being totally exhausted she could hardly hold her head up.  It was commented there were big fish in there but generally people don’t understand pelicans can’t dive deeper than the length of their neck so she was also starving.

With all the attention she became spooked and squeezed herself through the grate and into the open lake but so unwell she just started drifting. Onto the phone to team member John to bring his hovercraft over she is now safely in care.

This poor bird would have been lucky to weigh 2kilo - she’d been in there a lot longer than 2 days, but a couple more days in care and big feeds of fish she will be back out in the wild.

A big thank you to fisho Gordon, power station, Warren the fire station officer Rod and hovercraft John for their invaluable help.

She is one very lucky bird that so many people cared.

Betty

Sparkie the Pelican

MUTILATED

This Female Bird was spotted by a waterfront resident who said the bird was not there 30 minutes prior to phoning us.

On retrieving this bird from the water it was very obvious she had been mauled.  At first instance I thought it may have been fishing line injury, but closer inspection revealed wounds on her back – a broken wing where the poor thing has tried to defend herself – a smashed lower bill and shredded pouch.  Her attacker presumably grabbed her from behind and tore at her face.

You know – I hope the owner of the dog is ashamed of himself and should have his animal put down!

The mystery is how did the bird get there? Had she been dumped from a boat? If so, then that is even worse as some nasty person has witnessed their animal doing this and then got rid of the evidence.

FOOTNOTE:  All Native Birds are protected by the Wildlife Act, and any incidents will incur a very large fine !!!!

Betty

Badly mutilated pelican - broken lower bill

Badly mutilated pelican - shredded pouch

Labour Day Long Weekend

Well - that was a weekend that was  - apart from out of season scorching heat - we had 3 interesting rescues.

It all started at 5pm on Friday with a call from new team members Narelle and her daughter who had decided to go on a patrol and spotted a little female pelican with a large lump on her neck. They contacted me (Betty) immediately and I went straight over. On catching her it appeared to be an abscess or a tumour so off to the vet. Many thanks here to Deiderik of Kembla Grange Veterinary practice who saw us straight away despite clients waiting. He couldn't syringe it as it was too solid so next morning back we went before the surgery opened and he cut it out.

She is now in care for 10 days so next time someone says "oh don't worry the hook will rust" here's proof that they don't and do work their way into the body. Untreated she would've died from infection or starvation so well done girls you saved her life as did the vet.

Saturday a pelican was reported with a broken wing but despite Narelle and I searching for over an hour we could not find it. The area is a large inlet fed by the sea that tapers into a mostly inaccessible creek. It was thought she must've drifted out to sea or gone right up then creek to hide as there were lots of people splashing around. Unfortunately it was a delayed call from another rescue group making it even harder to locate the bird.

Sunday morning a call came in about a swan not wanting to move. On picking her up I noticed blood in her mouth. The fellow said he heard a bang on the roof Saturday night but didn't think much of it then found her on Sunday morning. So back home, rehydrated and mouth washed she settled down. Worried about concussion or internals I kept her overnight for observation and happily released her Monday morning clear of injuries.

Sunday 8pm a fellow spotted a pelican in a drain with a broken wing. So that's where she went!! A long way from where she was reported on Saturday. So on the phone to co-ordinator Kirsten off we went with torches, rope, fish and fingers crossed. There she was 6 ft down in the drain so over the fence and down we went after letting the police know what we were doing. 9pm now and she panicked seeing these 2 mad women coming over the fence with torches. We were unable to catch her as it was very slippery. She then ran under a bridge. So back over the fence and across the road. We found her in a totally inaccessible place surrounded by reeds and who knows what else was down that steep bank. Unable to scare her back under the bridge we had to admit defeat and headed home at 10pm to return next morning and hopefully find her again.

Monday 7am Team member Oliver and I headed back to find her with Kirsten on standby. She was in the same spot so with Oliver hiding under the bridge I tried to scare her to go to him. She refused to budge and while we were figuring out how to get her she got sick of us looking at her and went under the bridge on her own. After a mighty effort from Oliver scaling the fence for the fourth time, and a chase, she was in his arms. Sadly though to be taken to the vet. But she would've died a horrible death in that drain - she was already under weight and had lice on her.

With 2 out of 3 success stories - it sure was a weekend that was.

Thank you Kirsten, Oliver and Narelle. Also vet Deiderik for fixing up the little girl I still have in care and Greencross Vets for being open on a public holiday.

Betty

FRIDAY 13th

Who said Friday the 13^th was unlucky?   This female pelican pictured with team member Leonie certainly had luck on her side.

ASR team member Leonie with the Lucky Pelican

I was checking to see if a juvenile pelican that had hit power lines the previous afternoon (where he had landed on his back) was OK – he was – despite looking as though he had really hurt his leg – it must have just been jarred so he got off with a few broken tail feathers.  Australian Seabird Rescue co-ordinator, Kirsten and I monitored him for over an hour the night of his accident.

Anyway, while watching him the next morning, I spotted this female pelican looking very sorry for herself and unable to raise any of our members at that time, I asked a fellow launching his boat if he could help – unfortunately that frightened her and on an adrenalin rush she managed a short flight into the adjacent wetland which is inaccessible by boat.

Now desperate, I rang team member, Leonie, who had retired from major rescues after injuring her leg.  A great big thank you to Leonie for responding and with her past experience and after a short ‘chase’ was able to get the pelican on the kayak and safely bring her to shore – a big paddle in the wind.  She would have perished overnight with a cold snap in the weather being unable to retain her body heat.  LUCKY 13!  This particular wetland is quite shallow with smelly black mud so Leonie had to then get home and ‘scrubbed up’ to go to work.

Thanks, again, mate – the bird is now settled in care and with treatment will be back out there in about a week.

Betty

PORT LUCK

Pelican Port Luck!

Another very lucky lady!  She was terribly distressed and obviously in a lot of pain.  She couldn’t come out of the water so in went Australian Seabird Rescue Team Member, Oliver, who jumped on her, injuring himself and losing some skin off his legs and hand on the rocks.  The poor Pelican had a massive hook in the cartilage of her toe so she could not fly, swim, or put her foot to the ground.  It was feared her leg was broken so off to the vet – lucky again as there is only one vet open on Sunday.  X-rays cleared her of any breaks so a week in care to allow the muscle damage to repair and intensive medication she was back out where she belongs.  A nasty wound on her wing healed.  Avoidable trauma once again due to a thoughtless fisher person – it really is so easy to be careful. 

As a matter of interest these hooks were joined by a new invention – braided line – it is super strong and cannot be cut by ordinary scissors – please consider this when purchasing your tackle.

Betty

POISONED

This handsome and very young male pelican was reported struggling on his own a very short time after some fishermen had cleaned/emptied their nets out.

Pelican poisoned from puffer fish.

Puffer fish caught in pelican's throat

The photos show the innumerable puncture wounds to the pouch,  which consist of a myriad of veins, and the other photo reflects  the fish caught in the throat with the airway in front.  Pelicans are not stupid and there is no way this this bird would have picked up this large puffer fish of his own accord. 

The most likely scenario – a fisherman with no regard for wildlife has thrown this fish to the bird which would have ‘puffed’ up on contact with the bird’s pouch leaving him no way of getting rid of it – the poison going straight  to his gut and blood stream.  The witness stated he died quickly a few minutes after the fishermen left.  With a beak of 41 cm he would have been a good strong breeder.

If the scenario occurred as outlined above, the fisherman has to live with his conscience and I hope he struggles with that as did the young bird struggle.

Betty

DICKIE

Wound on pelican's neck

One very lucky young lady (Pelican) who owes her life to Dick the vet who spent hours operating on her.  She had a 20 cm cut on her neck which had also cut the oesophagus – many, many stitches and ten days intensive care she was then released. We saw her two days later back in the same spot where we caught her on one of our regular patrols.  She came over to us and caught a good size flathead – so no troubles from the operation it was almost like she was thanking us.  Without our dedicated vets she would have died slowly from starvation.  With no idea how she was wounded she is at least back happy and safe.  Thanks again Dick and Staff – also Australian Seabird Rescue Team Member Oliver.

Betty

YOWIE

I received a desperate call from residents, David and Tracey, of Yowie Bay, Sydney, about a pelican in all sorts of trouble.  It turned into a real ‘baptism of fire’ experience for new Team Member, Dallas.  Due to the late hour, plus 1 hour travelling time, I decided Dallas and I would head up early next day, rain and all.

The poor female pelican had line coming from her beak, around her head and chest and tight around her leg.  Being in such a bad way we couldn’t get her in the usual manner, so I asked David if we could get her in his boat.  Yeah… good idea, but being low tide he and Dallas had to drag it over the sand flat quite a distance with a big motor on the boat. 

So off we went and off she went flying with difficulty amongst the moored boats.  Finally she landed on a pole of a private jetty – I could see the 1.5 metre of the trailing line hanging down the pole so I jumped onto the bow of the board, wrapped the line around my hand and pulled.  She won!  She came down landing in the water… but the line cut my hand so I quickly got Dallas to get the net over her head and I hauled her in to the boat. 

Back on dry land, where we could look at her properly, the line was carefully removed from her leg and I managed to successfully remove the hook, which she had swallowed, with a not so delicate ‘hand down the throat’ approach.  Happily, we were able to release her and she went off fishing.

I called David and Tracey the next day to check on her progress and they reported that she was doing fine… a big thank you to them as she would have perished either from starvation or the line cutting through her leg.  Thanks also to Dallas – job well done!

Betty

Yowie the pelican

Latest branch news

NEW MEMBERS:

 Firstly,  I would like to welcome Amy, Kate, Linda, Kiala, Monique and Paul to our Branch ... it is fabulous that you have joined us and I look forward to seeing you at the workshop if you can make it (Sunday 15 December).

 RESCUES/REHAB UPDATE

 We have had another busy few weeks with the pelicans... many affected by botulism.  Betty has five in care at the moment and I would like to particularly thank Julie for all her support - she has been assisting Betty on a daily basis with medications/feeding and the general housekeeping which is required.

 We have also had a big effort by Shari and Shaun during the past few weeks with a range of rescues.... thanks guys.  Many of our members have been working as a team when needed - fantastic work!

 As previously mentioned, if you have a spare afternoon or day that you are able to assist and/or undertake a proactive please call Betty on the ASR hotline  0431282238 - I don't want to see Betty burnout.... we all know what the consequences would be if that occurred.  The Christmas period is going to be a challenge as many of us will be away and I would like to arrange for Betty to have a few days without the phone... we will need to discuss this at the meeting.

 WARRAWONG BBQ

 I would like to thank Lidia, John, Michael, Fulvia, Kay, Leonie, Tess, Kath and Jennifer for running the BBQ at Bunnings, Warrawong, we banked approximately $1100, which is a fantastic effort! 

  JOINT CLEANUP:  14 December 2013:  Longbeach North, Beecroft Peninsula, Currarong:  11am

 Please don't forget that we have organised a joint cleanup with ORRCA, Marine Mammal Rescue & Responsible Runners, Jervis Bay on 14 December -  bring a picnic lunch if you are able to hang around to talk to our friends from other wildlife rescue organisations.

 Let me know if you can attend as I will be taking my car and have some spare seats.

 ASR WORKSHOP FOR NEW MEMBERS/REFRESHER FOR CURRENT MEMBERS:  Sunday 15 December 2013

 I am  conducting a workshop for new members on Sunday, 15 December at the Port Kembla Sailing Club near Berkeley Boat ramp from 9.15am to 3pm... so if you require a refresher (every two years) please let me know and you can participate in this workshop.

 BRANCH MEETING:  Monday, 16 December 2013

 The last meeting of the year is on Monday, 16 December at the Illawarra Yacht Club -  so come along for a quick meeting; light refreshments and a social chat.  It is a pity our southern friends are a bit too far away to join us..... but we certainly acknowledge all the work that people do and I will make every effort to come down the coast to catch up in the new year!

 Kirsten

 

Oily peli's at Greenwell Point

Last Sunday Betty received a call from Australian Seabird Rescue team member Shari, to say there were a bunch of pelicans at Greenwell Point covered in oil. So a scramble was on to get there asap. Betty and Kathryn took the ASR van with Kirsten and Jeff following close behind. Betty and Kathryn thought they were only 5 minutes from their destination when low and behold they rounded a corner and came across a herd of cows crossing the road heading for their afternoon milking (not sure what "Mr Cow" was doing amongst them!). 

We had to wait for a herd of cows to cross the road! They were very interested in us.

After waiting patiently for them all to cross (we didn't have much choice did we!) we continued on our way. Shari and Sean were waiting for us when we arrived at Greenwell Point along with Judy from WIRES who had come along to help. Shari and Sean had already captured one pelican. This one not only had oil on his feathers but had a bad wound on his back. The nooses were set and Shari and Sean managed to capture another of the oily pelicans while Jeff snagged one using the beak grab method. By this time the birds had become rather wary and while still hanging around hoping for a free feed, they were not coming close enough to capture. So unfortunately this left at least 3 more oily birds out there.

The least affected of the pelicans was taken to Judy's for treatment and overnight care in an enclosure usually reserved for wombats! Betty and Kathryn took the other 2 back to Wollongong in the van, with the birds protesting all the way.

We stopped at the Berkeley fish shop to pick up supplies for the birds dinner  and Betty noticed a sick pelican in the wetlands. Jeff had attempted to catch this bird in the morning but at that stage she still had enough energy to continuously keep out of his reach. So no rest for Kirsten and Jeff as they were called on their way home from Greenwell Point and using the kayak successfully picked up the now very sick bird. She has botulism, which is very prevalent at this time of year. With a few days of TLC, many of these birds are able to make a full recovery. Meanwhile, the two oily birds were installed in their new home. Their bath would wait til the next day as it was so wet and miserably cold by this time.

The oily pelicans are washed and given antibiotics.

It has been a busy period for ASR and Betty has had a lot of birds come into care. We don't know how the Greenwell Point birds became covered with oil so the worry is how many and what other wildlife are affected.

Many thanks to Shari, Sean, Judy, Betty, Kirsten, and Jeff for their help in the successful capture of 3 oily birds and also thanks to the member of the public who first noticed and reported them.

Kathryn

Close

This was one lucky lady. This hideous hard plastic lure with a hook was embedded in the pelicans face 1mm away from her eye. First spotted she was bleeding but gave Australian Seabird Rescue team members the slip and hid somewhere for a couple of days. Unable to rest until she was caught - we did - and with no infection she was treated and released on site.

Hook and lure embedded near a pelican's eye. Fortunately it was able to be successfully removed.

Then....

A couple of days later a big male turned up with this float tangled in his foot with a 4oz sinker attached. He had no hope of flying and could only lift off the water and crash back down. He too was caught and released on site. Two good results - but both incidents due to careless fishing.

 

Hook and sinker tangled around a pelcians foot. Australian Seabird Rescue was able to catch the bird, remove this mess and sucessfully release the pelican.

Betty

Spring has Sprung! but sadly for our birds their trouble has just begun!

Careless thoughtless fishing has caused this horrific injury to this young breeding female. The net was tangled around this girl's leg! Whether it was floating (unlikely with 2 sinkers attached) or she has been caught in it and the fisherman has dragged her ripping the skin off the muscle and then cutting the rope as it has been cut not frayed. A professional wouldn't do that. Her foot was so tightly wrapped it had cut off her circulation, her leg was stripped of skin and feathers and heartbreakingly she had to be euthanized.

 

How could this happen? Both Australian Seabird Rescue team member and vet were in tears as they cut off the net to see if she could be saved. She just sat quietly hoping we could help her. An absolute tragedy which could have been avoided!

Betty

 

Horrific injury to a pelican caused by a fishing net.

Net caught around pelicans leg