Having lived for four years on sea bird colony islands (Cousin 1990-91, Cousine 1993-96) and then in my former capacity as Director of Conservation in the Department of Environment (1996 – 2002) I have encountered a lot of injured or sick birds, abandoned chicks etc... :
- Otherwise healthy seabirds, in particular lesser noddies, brown noddies and white terns, are often to be found with irreparable injuries such as badly broken wings.
- In certain years the sticky seeds of the Pisonia tree can reap a grim harvest.
- A failing of the monsoon wind can leave literally thousands of chicks abandoned to starvation by their parents that are forced back out to sea to seek food for their own survival.
We have negligible capacity nationally to treat injured wild birds, so ones with badly broken wings are best despatched with a swift blow to the back of the head (techniques vary but the end result is much the same). This is the kindest thing to do as otherwise the birds face a period of slow starvation and then being eaten alive by crabs and/or lizards when they become too weak to evade these scavengers. Many birds can be saved from the sticky Pisonia seeds provided they are found and cleaned early enough and sterling work is undertaken on the various island reserves when seeding coincides with the nesting season. Abandoned seabird juveniles should generally be left where they are found, or if appropriate put on the nearest prominent perch, as adults will often continue to tend to young that have fallen from their nests.
As a conservationist at heart it can be very distressing to have to terminate birds. In particular I find dealing with injured white-tailed tropic birds the most difficult. I am certain that this large and particularly beautiful bird has sufficient intelligence to “know the score” and I distinctly recall one such bird looking me directly and pointedly in the eye seconds before I despatched it.
Still as with the Pisonia seeds not all encounters end badly and in the last 8 months I have had two encounters that have generated good photo-opportunities and are worth recalling.
In December 2007 we had several crested terns on the island including adults still accompanied by their sub-adult offspring. I noted over a period of days that one sub-adult was partly entangled in something and was hence limited in its ability to move and fly. After seeing it struggling on consecutive days I resolved to try and catch it. This was not easy because we have a couple of sandstone outcrops just offshore in the lagoon and the bird was still able to reach these refuges. Anyway with some forethought, careful manoeuvring and patience I was able to catch it and remove what turned out to be discarded fishing line that had entangled around its legs and one wing. With this removed the bird was returned to full mobility and with an indignant squawk and rather vicious peck removed itself from my otherwise unwanted attentions and flew off to join the others.
Then in July I was in the hotel media room when there was an abrupt thump on one of the windows, I looked out to see that the victim of this unfortunate impact was a rare Seychelles warbler. The bird was stricken and lying agape on the ground and my initial thought was that things did not look good, particularly as there was evidence of blood around its mouth. I gathered it up carefully and took a minute or so to examine it for other overt signs of injury – there were none. Within a couple of minutes it began flexing and gripping with its claws, so I placed it on a sheltered perch in a nearby bush and observed from a distance. Over the next 30 minutes or so, it slowly recovered, ceased gaping and became incrementally more aware of its surroundings. Several further minutes were spent motionless, followed by a brief preening before it suddenly, and apparently no worse for wear, flew back off into the bushes.
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