Joey Rescued from Cattle Grid

On a rainy day in late October a call came in on XMatters for a kangaroo joey that was stuck inside a cattle grid in Moruya. A member of the public had reported that the joey was trapped in the cavity below the grid and couldn’t understand how it could have got in there as it is a concrete cavity with iron bars over the top of it that are 10cm apart.

Dave Clarke came to its rescue, reaching in and holding it by the tail and legs as he quickly lifted it out. The uninjured joey hopped straight back to its mother who was waiting anxiously nearby.

Dave has had experience with rescuing kangaroos and sheep form cattle grids. The property owner has decided to fill the cavity below the grill with gravel to prevent this sort of thing happening again.

Adventures of Slippery the Duck

by Caryn Norris

Young Slippery is a juvenile wood duck. The locals at Ingenia Caravan Park, Lake Conjola know the bird well. Caryn from our branch took an XMatters call to catch Slippery as he had fishing line wrapped tightly around one leg. His foot was badly swollen.

Caryn tried, unsuccessfully, together with many members of public, to corner Slippery and his friends so they could catch him. Two days later Caryn came back armed with two extras, Katie and Ben. They tried everything they could think of and Slippery still got away.

Determined to help Slippery they called in the cavalry and mustered up three more helpers. This time they had Caryn, Katie, Ben, Sandra, Stephen and Terry. They didn’t get the duck after a long and arduous attempt. So they asked the members of public to try to catch the duck when it came around their caravans.

In the meantime Sandra and Stephen were busy making a large D net to try the next time. Then Caryn got a call from a Caravan Park resident saying that Slippery had been caught by her husband Rick and was safely contained in a box. All Rick had to do was sit outside with a beer and peanuts in one hand and the upright fishing net close to the other hand. He tossed the peanuts near the net and when Slippery got close he flipped the net and caught Slippery. He then removed most of the fishing line. Thanks Rick!

Caryn picked up Slippery and took him to Ulladulla Vet. Slippery was finally relieved of the last of the fishing line and sent home with Sandra Dewhurst for some tender loving care for a few nights before Sandra released Slippery back to his home.

A wonderful outcome! Amazing teamwork and fantastic help from members of public have led to success. Thanks to everyone involved.

Bird Recovery Program at Risk

The successful South Coast Shorebird Recovery Program set up in 1999 has had its funding cut. The program relies on volunteers but is coordinated by staff from the National Parks & Wildlife Service. Funding for Jodie Dunn, who covers the South Coast area from Wollongong to Batemans Bay is to be cut in February next year.

The program has successfully protected endangered species including the pied oystercatchers (only 200 breeding pairs left in NSW) and hooded plovers. For example, pied oystercatchers tend to lay their eggs on top of small mounds (see photo left) and they take five weeks to hatch. During that time they can be trampled on. Even after they hatch, the chicks cannot fly for another five weeks and are vulnerable to predators such as foxes.

Puggle Survives Attack

A baby echidna, or puggle, survived a fall of around four metres on the Central Coast before being taken to Taronga Wildlife Hospital. It is thought it was taken from its burrow by a bird of prey. It had scratches on its back and was found beneath a branch with a raven and a magpie on it.

"Senior Keeper Sarah Male will now spend the next few months giving the puggle a feed of specially formulated echidna milk formula and a bath before it returns to its burrow for its 48 hour sleep cycle."

Norma Henderson, Australian Bird Rehabilitation : A Manual for Wildlife Carers, 2018, 185pp, $25+postage.

Long-time WIRES member Norma Henderson was initially asked to compile this manual for WIRES carers and rescuers in 1995. Since then she has "greatly expanded and regularly updated it”. Although it is no longer an official WIRES manual, it is still used by many WIRES members and some WIRES branches, as well as other wildlife groups around Australia, as an extremely handy and practical quick reference guide.

This informative manual covers more than 60 species of bird and is laid out in an easy-to-use format. Rescuers and carers just have to look up the bird species they are interested in, in either the contents or the index, to find essential information about rescuing, feeding, housing, rearing and releasing that species as well as problems, injuries and diseases common they might find.

Norma Henderson, editor, Chicks, Nestlings & Fledglings of Australian Birds: Identification and Care, 2018, $25+postage.

There are many books on identifying birds, but they can be useless when it comes to identifying chicks that look nothing like adult birds. Norma Henderson’s manual fills that gap. It includes over 200 colour photos of chicks, nestlings and fledglings of Australian birds, as well as additional black and white photos. They show birds at various ages. The manual also aids identification by enabling carers to use beak, eye, foot and leg shape, colouring, weight, feather and nest type to identify the species and the age of the chick.

At the end of the manual, Norma includes a section on reuniting chicks with their parents, feeding and caring for them and releasing them.

The manuals can be ordered online here. Norma’s downloadable documents and presentations on small mammals and birds are also helpful.

Eurobodalla Shire Nestboxes

With the help of a WIRES grant, Eurobodalla Shire Council has been supporting local community groups and landholders to build, paint and install hundreds of nest boxes to help wildlife impacted by the bushfires.

The Narooma Mens Shed has built many of them and local Landcare volunteers have painted them to make them weatherproof. There are different designs for various species including birds and small gliders.

Courtney Fink-Downes from the Council says: “There are still nesting boxes available for rural landholders who have either unburnt bushland near burnt areas, or have burnt bush where wildlife are starting to return.”

Ref: Wildlife more at home in custom nest boxes, Eurobodalla Shire Council, 26 October 2020.