All Creatures Great and Small

Australian Seabird Rescue team member Gillian and great friend of ASR Peter, recently attended a family orientated day in Moruya on the NSW South Coast.

This annual event the "Feast of St Francis" or endearingly known as the "Blessing of the pets" is held by St John's Anglican Church.

A lovely sunny day - this community event saw lots of people bring their pets to the church grounds to be blessed at the altar and font by Rev. Linda Chapman. After a lovely morning tea Rev Chapman asked Peter to give a talk.

It was a great opportunity to spread the word about ASR. Peter, an ex member, is very well versed on birds and the problems they encounter and is still very active on the South Coast; never hesitating to assist birds in trouble. Highlights of his very informative talk were how locals could help by being the "eyes" for ASR and reporting any problems whatsoever to the ASR hotline as we can't be everywhere and do rely on this help from the general public. The never ending problem of plastic in the ocean was also discussed. In particular balloons which are mistaken for food by most sea creatures and birds, a devastating impact is occurring with all washed up birds having plastic in their gut.

As rescue coordinator I always tell people we would rather attend 10 false alarms than one tragedy so never hesitate to ring.

A big thank you to Gillian and Peter for attending this event and handing out lots of brochures and cards.

Footnote: Next time you are planning a party of promotional event please consider paper streamers instead of balloons. They really are just as effective and less destructive.

Betty

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

Wake Up Call

Landcare Illawarra hosted an event on 16 September 2015 as a call to action and to inform people of the devastating impact rubbish and marine debris has on wildlife. Environmentalist Tim Silverwood spoke for an hour about the downfall of our environment since the "easy lifestyle" began in 1955. Tim is founder of "Take 3" whose initiative it is to take 3 pieces of rubbish when you leave our beaches, waterways or parklands. They are sponsored by Taronga Zoo and are partners with Tangaroa Blue, Plastic Free July and Surfriders. He spoke of things such as tiny plastic beads in hand creams and body cleansing lotions, chemicals in Bakelite products, thin plastic film in some tea bags which break down in hot water - yep and then you drink it!

Research has shown that 8 million tonnes of plastic per annum goes into the ocean. He showed slides of debris in the Philippines, USA, Bali and a devastating major spill of plastic beads in Hong Kong - ever seen a beach with plastic sand? A very sad picture taken by a diver off Bali in December 2014 of a Manta ray surrounded by floating plastics was also shown.

Research from the CSIRO indicates that in the near future every seabird will have plastic in it - its already over 30%. They are the ones that are not killed outright as their bodies are blocked. 100% of shearwaters washed up on Lord Howe Island had plastic in them.

Another interesting talk by Lachlan Fetterplace and Matt Rees of Fishthinkers followed. Both marine scientists, they showed a video of a lab study to see if plankton would eat plastic beads - and in doing so would be shooting this up the food chain to humans which is already impacting Inuit people. Slides also of a beached turtle and dolphin with plastic in the gut. Ten people from Australia and New Zealand recently went to Cape York and in a five day 6.5km beach walk picked up and catalogued 451m of fishing line, 310 commercial remnants, 151 ghost nets and 650 toothbrushes! They also filled 14 bags with what should have been recycled.

Australian Seabird Rescue South Coast Branch co-ordinator Kirsten Hort was also a guest speaker and spoke of our never-ending problems with sea and shore birds affected by human rubbish.

Another speaker from Surfriders showed shopping bags they made from recycled materials.

The evening was certainly a "wake up". What monsters we have become through the years? Why are we letting this happen to us? Its ruining our lives and nature’s creations round us.

I'm not giving up - are you?

Please take the time to look at these websites and have a rethink of what's around your home and talk to everyone you meet about this problem.

Betty

www.take3.org.au

www.rechusable.com

www.surfriders.org.au

fishthinkers.wordpress.com

‘HOOKED!’

Easter Sunday morning, sunshine was interrupted by a call to Australian Seabird Rescue from a resident, Dave, at the local mobile home village, reporting a pelican on the island with its wing down and unable to fly.

Onto the phone to Sam, one of our invaluable hovercraft owners, I asked if he could pick me up and take me to the bird.  Sam had a mate, Bruce, visiting from America, who came across and waited on the shore while Sam and I went to collect the poor thing.  The picture is compliments of Bruce.

Betty & Sam rescuing a pelican with a broken wing.

On inspection, the poor bird not only had a break, but a nasty wound at the site.  There is no doubt it was a serious hook injury (I have seen many, sadly).  Somebody has hooked the bird and just yanked so hard to get their 20c hook back, they have snapped her wing.  So, straight to the Greencross Vets, thankfully they are opened on Sunday, to be euthanized.

Thank you Sam for helping me save her from a horrible slow death.

If only…. you know, everyone – it really is so easy to stop, think and assess the situation before causing this sort of damage with a tragic ending.

Betty

UNLUCKY

Egret found with broken wing.

This dainty little bird, an Egret, somehow got herself in trouble.  On a calm Saturday night a call came in to Australian Seabird Rescue, from the Port Kembla Rail.  A worker had found her hiding in the bushes.  Not a mark on her and absolutely snow white, unfortunately her left wing was broken.  So strapped up warm and safe for the night the outcome was never going to be good.  One wonders how she managed to hurt herself - although this type of bird is quite common, they all have a place in the ecosystem and we should be ensuring all species a future.

Betty

STOLEN

Baby Grebe

This poor little ball of fluff (a baby Grebe) has obviously been stolen from the nest by either a raven or raptor but then dumped ungraciously on the road way at the local council tip.

Searching the vicinity there was no sign of the parents, so I took him home, fed him up and tucked him in safe and warm.

Despite all my efforts, the poor little thing died (possibly form internal injuries) 24 hours later.  But being unmarked except for a bit of blood on the beak it was decided he was a great specimen for the Australian Museum so off he went the next day.  At least he will be on display and help educate the public about our amazing birdlife.

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

The Amazing Brown Booby

The amazing Brown Booby - found well away from her usual habitat

This beautiful and unusual tropical bird was found by our Australian Seabird Rescue branch Co-ordinator, Kirsten, and Team Member, Dallas, well away from her usual habitat - we can only assume with a sore wing she was caught in the big monsoonal trough in the new year.

The Boobys usually roost on coral cays, buoys or the rigging of ships – it is quite common for them to hitch a ride on a ship.  We went straight to our mates at SOSSA (Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association) for an assessment and under the care of Cannon & Ball Vets she was assessed as having some head trauma as well as a sore wing.  On the Sunday, and with no improvement, we decided to take her to Greencross Vet as Cannon and Ball Vets weren’t open and an Xray revealed no break but a lot of tissue damage.

Lindsay and Janice of SOSSA had a very good friend visiting, Damien, who is the assistant curator of the Northern Territory Wildlife Park, so he also looked at Ms Booby.  She was certainly being looked after and seemed settled for a few days on medication.  However, she became stressed and stopped eating and was totally disoriented.  We took her back to Mike Cannon and it was decided the head trauma showed little improvement and the kindest thing we could do was to euthanize her. Being such a beautiful bird she was sent by SOSSA straight to the museum in Sydney to be included in their display.

A big thank you to Lindsay of SOSSA, Mike from Cannon & Ball Vets, Heyn from Greencross Vets and Damien of the NT Wildlife Park for their assistance.  It was great to meet Damien being an ex NT girl and to hear an update on the Wildlife Park.

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

SURFIN’ SWAN

Who on earth told this young swan she could go surfing! She was reported by a resident of Kiama, David, who is lucky enough to have a home right on the rocks at the Little Blowhole - a famous landmark on this stretch of the south coast, with a reputation of having dangerous surf breaking straight on the rocks.  The swan was seen being bashed on the rocks by waves.  When we arrived she’s managed to get upon on a rock but clearly in a lot of trouble.  On our approach though she panicked and went back in the surf.  Over half an hour of tensely watching her get washed out to sea then back, in jumped our team member, Oliver, into the breaking waves to save her, with no regard for his own safety.  Battered and bruised she was taken to a dark safe place to recover after her ordeal.  She was monitored and her injuries (though luckily no breaks) were treated.  I wonder how she knew to keep her wings tucked in so they didn’t get broken! Many thanks to David for reporting her and to Australian Seabird Rescue Team Member Oliver for saving her.  The photo is of her being released in the Lake where she is supposed to be.

Betty

ASR team member Oliver with the rescued Surfin Swan!