WALLY
By Stef Randall
Hi! I’m Wally, I’m a young mature wattlebird.
When I arrived at Mabel’s place I was a nestling Wattlebird orphan. She’s a good nanny Mabel!
She put me with a mate, a butcherbird, same age, less clever than me but a nice kid. So we became friends.
Mabel took good care of us until we were big enough to be released. She’s the one who gave me the name Wally .
As Butch was a bit hopeless some times, he once flew into a shop… maybe he was looking for a butcher’s hook…
So I decided to keep an eye on him and follow him. That’s how I happened to land in West Busselton. That’s where he came from. For once he was smart, he found his way back home. But there was no place for me, since I’m not from the same family.
So I wandered around, then I spotted some possum cages, I remembered that there were some at Mabel’s place as well, so I went and knocked at the window to check if those people living here were as friendly. And yep I was right, I met a very nice lady , she gave me some food. She might have thought I was a very important guest as she kept taking pictures of me.
Then for a month or so I travelled between Mabel's and my new place. That was cool, I used to love landing on the possums’ cages to have a chat, but those are weird animals they never answered me and anyway they sleep all day, too boring.
But one day I realised that fetching the food by myself was more fun and I also met a nice chick so I stopped going to my foster parent's places. I know they’re happy to know that I am flying under my own power. I thank them for the good time I spent with them.
Magic at Duchess Street
It has been a long spring, nestlings and fledglings have poured in as Vicki knows.
We think we have seen it all before – and then the unexpected magic happens! This is a true story, witnessed from our sun room over three days.
Previous experience has taught us that nestlings bond with us and still can be successfully released. On the other hand, fledglings don’t want to hang around and bond, they want to be on the wing and free, ready or not. So when we received two Welcome Swallows who had taken an unsuccessful first flight, we tried a new tack and sat them on the garden trellis where they began to call loud and clear. Soon out of the heavens soared a few adult Welcome Swallows, they took stock of the situation and sped off into the atmosphere and out of sight – to return minutes later with food for the babies. This went on all day long, they fed and flew and the babies continued to call for more. At night I bought them in and then replaced them outside early in the morning. For three days this continued and then in the late afternoon on the third day, after much flapping and excitement they took off and we lost sight of them. We found a dead one in the front garden but we feel our two are still up there high in the sky.
But this is not the end of the magic! We had ten or more New Holland Honey eaters in the back garden. These are considered an aggressive bird but we discovered otherwise, because while all this was happening first one and then another ventured near the baby Swallows and began feeding them. By the second day there were eight to ten Honey eaters sitting with the babies, warming and feeding them. They were even encouraging them to fly by calling them from short distances. The adult Swallows still came and fed the babies, talk about a combined effort. Those babies had the fullest crops ever! But even that is not all because the back yard Doves and Bronze Wings tried to be a part of it all by sitting close and trying to feed the little ones! How fortunate we are to have witnessed nature at its best and what a lesson to learn.
Mabel
Giant Petrel
One evening Mabel Bell got a call from the Dunsborough Vet, telling her about a huge bird in his surgery that was very weak but still well enough to bite him. Nothing else seemed to be wrong with the Giant Petrel. A Canadian family – parents with three children – had found it when surfing and they were brave enough to rescue it. They now insisted on bringing the bird up to Mabel. Late in the evening, they arrived with their charge, drained of all strength. The Giant Petrel was lying down too weak to even raise its head. Like so many seabirds that are coming in this year, it was utterly exhausted.
It kept lying flat on its tummy for a few days and Mabel and Peter had to force feed it. They had to be brave enough to open its very sharp beak and to push food in. They might have lost a finger or two, but fortunately, they did not. The turning point came when a very lonely feral duck that was also in Mabel’s care made friends with it. After three days of companionship the giant bird not only felt better, it decided that the duck would make a tempting meal. It grabbed its wing and pulled. Peter who saw this had no choice but to make a grab at the duck too and so they both pulled – and eventually Peter won. There were feathers everywhere, but the duck survived. From this moment on the Petrel would try to eat anything that went by – including Mabel or Peter.
For weeks, the Giant Petrel was unable to stand at all, and when it finally got up Mabel realised that its knees were very swollen. The ligaments were severely stressed, probably due to the weight of the bird. Mabel wanted it to have an anti-inflammatory, but every time they tried to transport it to the vet, the bird would bite or stab at them with its very quick and extremely sharp beak. It was just too dangerous. However, without weighing it first the vet could not prescribe an anti-inflammatory. Luckily, a friend from out of town, who was a vet, called and said she would come and see it anytime. She has then been monitoring it but it took another three weeks before its knees got better.
Mabel and Peter kept it, nursed it along, swam it and fed it and fed it and fed it. The giant bird devoured at least 4$ a day in food.
Fortunately, the number of people who offered food was high. The Canadian family who rescued the bird came back a number of times to visit and they wanted to release it, but it was no way fit enough to go. They generously donated towards its food requirements. Then at last, Mabel and Peter realised that it was time for their charge to go back to its own world. They had to sit and wait that the storms subsided, even though the Petrel got very anxious. It would climb up on a woodpile, flap its wings and tell them that he was ready to leave. When the weather finally cleared and the wind was right they went – accompanied by the vet – down to Sugarloaf and took it out on to the rocks, where they thought the wind was best and they let it look at the sea and feel the wind. After 2 and a quarter hours of consideration – it decided to have a picnic with them. It followed Peter everywhere and could not even be persuaded to leave when the sea gulls came and annoyed it. Only when the young and agile vet took it up to a very high rock, to a point were the wind was always coming it decided – after another 10 minutes of rest – to take off. It flapped its great wings, soared up – and dropped again. By that time, there were many tourists around – Canadian tourists – so everyone was yelling and shouting “up, up, up” and clapping, when it finally lifted and went way out to sea between 2 very large rocks. Canadians brought it and Canadians saw it off.
We particularly want to thank the vets, who participated in this success story for their help, CALM for bringing mullies and squid and Roxanne from the Department of Justice who presented us with a donation from their Bunbury and Busselton offices.
Southern Giant Petrel
This information was received from the Department of Environment and Heritage after a juvenile Southern Giant Petrel came into care on the 4th August 2006 with a metal identification band around it's leg.
The following details were also attached.
The petrel was banded on the 2nd March 2006 at Macquarie Island, Tasmania as a nestling. The petrel was recovered 5 months and 2 days later on the beach at Busselton. The bird had moved a distance of 4085 km with a bearing of 286 degrees.
Sadly the petrel was very exhausted and dehydrated and died the next day.
