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!