It's been a while

I've been a bit slack updating this blog just lately. It's not so much that we haven't had animals in care, it's just that when I'm not studying we're both working. Doing blog entries seems like I'm slacking off.

So, what have we been up to this week, wildlife wise?

Donna and I are doing junk mail deliveries twice a week, the money isn't good, but the exercise is fantastic. Anyway, we got a call from one of our local vets on Tuesday afternoon. Not just any vet, but the best vet in the Redlands. Raby Bay Vet surgery had a lorikeet that had hit a car. I think the paperwork said it had been hit by a car, but in my experience it's usually the other way around. It's pretty hard to hit a bird when you're stopped at an intersection and I know heaps of people that have had that happen, including us.

So, all sweaty and stinky after three hours of walking we dropped into the vet surgery the next day to pick up this poor lorikeet.

We had a basket with us for the bird, but I'd forgotten my gloves, so for safety's sake I borrowed a pair of welding gloves that they had in the surgery. Think of that what you want. The lori was in a bird cage inside another cage, the little buggers are escape artists, and he was really noisy, more so than most lorikeets.

I put my gloved hand in the cage and grabbed our patient. If you've ever read the story of the monkey grabbing nuts from a jar you'll understand what it was like. Once I had the bird in my fist I couldn't get it out of the door of the cage. Angie, the vet nurse that was helping me, took the top off the cage and helped me put the other glove one. I then got a good grip on the bird with my left hand, but unfortunately he had a good grip of my right hand and wouldn't let go.

David, the vet, came to the rescue and grabbed the bird by the head, always the best thing with any wild animal, and we quickly had it in a basket.

He's now in a cage with the other lorikeets as he's still a juvenile. He'll be in there for a couple of weeks until they're all ready for release. In the mean time, they're all going to be the subjects of my animal behaviour assignment at uni.

Early this afternoon I was sitting on the back bumper of the car having just finished the junk mail delivery and I got a call from Hammy who runs Pelican and Seabird Rescue. She was at Raby Bay Vet surgery and they had a tawny frogmouth, could we take it? Of course we could, not only are we planning to specialise in tawnies, but it was a good opportunity to catch up with Hammy as she's been pretty busy just lately since the oil spill in Moreton Bay.

Hammy dropped the tawny round (not a frogmouth owl as the paperwork said, tawnies are not in any way related to owls) and the topic of the oil spill came up. Seems some high up pen pusher with no knowledge or experience of wildlife in the EPA took exception to Hammy trying to educate him, and now one of the most experienced pelican people in south east Queensland has been pretty much black listed.

In my limited experience as a wildlife carer, that seems to be the perception that the government has of wildlife carers. They see us as a bunch of amateurs. The fact that the people making decisions in the EPA are mainly admin people that don't have a clue shows you what carers are up against. A lot of carers have more specialised knowledge of certain species than scientists, and that's saying a lot considering I'm a science student. I can honestly say that the scientist appreciate that knowledge if the public servants don't. I say that as an ex-public servant too.

Anyway, rant over, Hammy showed us a bird that had come into care but unfortunately hadn't made it. It was a juvenile white tailed tropic bird and it has to be one of the most gorgeous birds I've ever seen, the pictures on the link don't do it justice. Unfortunately, I've never seen one alive, but it's now on my to do list. The one Hammy had was on its way to the Queensland museum, so other people will get to see what a beautiful bird it is.

Later in the day, we got a call from Donna's friend Lesleigh who had had a call to pick up a possum, species and age unkown. Lesleigh isn't a carer, but often does rescues and was wondering if we had room for another possy. We don't so she rang back to get that one passed back to the RSPCA.

Shortly after that we got call from Lisa, another friend of Donna's, who is also a possum carer. She had a lorikeet that had hit a car, sound familiar? She brought the little guy (or girl) around and it's now downstairs in a basket being kept quiet.

We seem to have have quiet periods, then busy periods in waves as carers. This week was sort of a busy period, nothing like what it'll be when the silly season hits in spring, but busier than it has been.

It definitely keeps you on your toes. Life would be so boring without a challenge.