birdmanmik
New member
Royal spoonbill in Distress
Looking out of my lounge window I saw something on the edge of the river where the royal spoonbills like to loaf. It looked like a piece of white plastic, even after looking through my telescope, so I thought no more about it. Later, in the morning having a cuppa tea with our friend Eileen, Moira, my wife remarked that there was a white bird flapping about. It wasn’t a piece of plastic at all. It was a royal spoonbill in distress. Eileen and I went down and I threw a sheet over the bird realising it was in a bad way. I decided to take it to the Nga Manu wildlife reserve. Eileen wanted to know how we were going to get it there as we didn’t have a box to put it in. “Don’t worry you are going to nurse it” I said as I put a towel over her lap and passed her the bird wrapped in a sheet. Bruce at Nga Manu met us at the door and we passed the bird to him. “Feel the ribcage Mik “he said and there was absolutely no meat there. Extending from both sides of its head were about thirty bloodsucking ticks with their bodies extended with blood sucked from the bird. I left the bird with Bruce and with the help of Rhys their wild life expert, they, with tweezers removed the ticks and some lice which were also affecting the bird. Moira and I went down to the river and got a bucket of saline water from the backwater then back home and retrieved some whitebait given us by Wendy the whitebaiter early in the season. Bruce had had previous experience with a spoonbill and as they feed by moving their bill sideways in the water, had hopes of putting the saline water in a flat bowl and sprinkling the whitebait in there for the bird to feed on. This didn’t happen as the bird was too weak so he delivered it to Andrea at the Raumati Veterinary clinic. Andréa has a long list of successful wildlife “saves” having treated a sick kiwi, been midwife’ to a tuatara, splinted a baby kaka’s foot, removed a fishhook from a swans neck [see newsletter August 2010] and helicoptered to Mana and Maud island to assist with the transfer of young takahe to their natural environment in fiordland.
So if anyone could save our spoonbill she could.
The bird survived three nights after being given substance through a drip. It picked up and was fed whitebait [So Wendy they went to a good cause] and fish every couple of hours. It couldn’t use its legs and would sit with them spread out in front. Andrea made a sling and hooked it up so its body was held and its legs were touching the floor and were massaged, but to no avail as they appeared paralysed. Not wanting to make the wrong judgement, Andrea consulted with another veterinary surgeon who unfortunately came to the same conclusion and the little spoonbill was put to sleep.
Looking out of my lounge window I saw something on the edge of the river where the royal spoonbills like to loaf. It looked like a piece of white plastic, even after looking through my telescope, so I thought no more about it. Later, in the morning having a cuppa tea with our friend Eileen, Moira, my wife remarked that there was a white bird flapping about. It wasn’t a piece of plastic at all. It was a royal spoonbill in distress. Eileen and I went down and I threw a sheet over the bird realising it was in a bad way. I decided to take it to the Nga Manu wildlife reserve. Eileen wanted to know how we were going to get it there as we didn’t have a box to put it in. “Don’t worry you are going to nurse it” I said as I put a towel over her lap and passed her the bird wrapped in a sheet. Bruce at Nga Manu met us at the door and we passed the bird to him. “Feel the ribcage Mik “he said and there was absolutely no meat there. Extending from both sides of its head were about thirty bloodsucking ticks with their bodies extended with blood sucked from the bird. I left the bird with Bruce and with the help of Rhys their wild life expert, they, with tweezers removed the ticks and some lice which were also affecting the bird. Moira and I went down to the river and got a bucket of saline water from the backwater then back home and retrieved some whitebait given us by Wendy the whitebaiter early in the season. Bruce had had previous experience with a spoonbill and as they feed by moving their bill sideways in the water, had hopes of putting the saline water in a flat bowl and sprinkling the whitebait in there for the bird to feed on. This didn’t happen as the bird was too weak so he delivered it to Andrea at the Raumati Veterinary clinic. Andréa has a long list of successful wildlife “saves” having treated a sick kiwi, been midwife’ to a tuatara, splinted a baby kaka’s foot, removed a fishhook from a swans neck [see newsletter August 2010] and helicoptered to Mana and Maud island to assist with the transfer of young takahe to their natural environment in fiordland.
So if anyone could save our spoonbill she could.
The bird survived three nights after being given substance through a drip. It picked up and was fed whitebait [So Wendy they went to a good cause] and fish every couple of hours. It couldn’t use its legs and would sit with them spread out in front. Andrea made a sling and hooked it up so its body was held and its legs were touching the floor and were massaged, but to no avail as they appeared paralysed. Not wanting to make the wrong judgement, Andrea consulted with another veterinary surgeon who unfortunately came to the same conclusion and the little spoonbill was put to sleep.
