Dennis
22-07-2007, 10:09 AM
Hello,
We went to investigate a bunch of noisy Mynahs making a raucous din on our front patio. I soon saw the object of their attention – a cat seemingly asleep against the house. But wait – the cat slowly raised its head, turning around to look at the new intruders and lo and behold, it was a large Possum! He looked injured, didn’t seem to want to move and his ears appeared to be shivering from the cold morning temps.
My wife jumped on the web and read that it was best to try to get him into a box and to a wildlife carer or vet. So, we prepared a box with old sheets but by this time he had jumped off the patio and dragged himself into the side garden under a Golden Cane palm. It looked like his back legs were paralysed and he was shivering – it was a really cold morning and the tiles on the patio would have sucked the heat out of his tired little body.
I put on some thick gardening gloves and crawled under the Golden Cane and just sat watching him soak up some morning sunshine. He seemed to settle down after a while so I tried to throw a towel over him but the fronds of the Golden Cane kept getting in the way. Plan B - grab him by the preferred method just acquired from the internet. I had him by the tail and grabbed him behind the neck but he was so muscular that there wasn’t any spare flesh there so my hand slipped a little and that’s when he bit me, on my thumb, right through the glove! Ouch. We looked at each other - a kind of Mexican stand off. I said I’d let go of him if he let go of my thumb, which he did. A quick follow up grab and I had him and he was in the box with another towel over him and the box lid taped up (plenty of air gaps).
We found a local vet who took him in – he turned out to be a big male with no sign of serious injury apart from a graze on his back legs. Anyhow, he responded well to their treatment and is now in the hands of a wildlife carer and will be placed back in the park behind our house in a couple of week’s time.
Oh, and my thumb is recovering too!
A couple of days later, we were at the Port of Brisbane Visitor Centre with the Vixen giant bino’s when my wife spotted a Jabiru with a rubber ring part way along its beak. We noticed some Ranger type people nearby so we called them over and they were astounded by the views of the distressed bird through the Vixen 30x125’s and the WO 80 ED II.
They tried to set a snare but were unsuccessful and in the meantime I managed to grab a couple of photos through the WO 80 with the Pentax *istDS. We e-mailed the photos to a local bird rescue organisation and they were very pleased to be able to use them as part of educating industry and the public not to pollute our local waterways and environment. The Rangers contacted some birding rescue organisation so hopefully they will be able to remove the offending ring.
Cheers
Dennis
We went to investigate a bunch of noisy Mynahs making a raucous din on our front patio. I soon saw the object of their attention – a cat seemingly asleep against the house. But wait – the cat slowly raised its head, turning around to look at the new intruders and lo and behold, it was a large Possum! He looked injured, didn’t seem to want to move and his ears appeared to be shivering from the cold morning temps.
My wife jumped on the web and read that it was best to try to get him into a box and to a wildlife carer or vet. So, we prepared a box with old sheets but by this time he had jumped off the patio and dragged himself into the side garden under a Golden Cane palm. It looked like his back legs were paralysed and he was shivering – it was a really cold morning and the tiles on the patio would have sucked the heat out of his tired little body.
I put on some thick gardening gloves and crawled under the Golden Cane and just sat watching him soak up some morning sunshine. He seemed to settle down after a while so I tried to throw a towel over him but the fronds of the Golden Cane kept getting in the way. Plan B - grab him by the preferred method just acquired from the internet. I had him by the tail and grabbed him behind the neck but he was so muscular that there wasn’t any spare flesh there so my hand slipped a little and that’s when he bit me, on my thumb, right through the glove! Ouch. We looked at each other - a kind of Mexican stand off. I said I’d let go of him if he let go of my thumb, which he did. A quick follow up grab and I had him and he was in the box with another towel over him and the box lid taped up (plenty of air gaps).
We found a local vet who took him in – he turned out to be a big male with no sign of serious injury apart from a graze on his back legs. Anyhow, he responded well to their treatment and is now in the hands of a wildlife carer and will be placed back in the park behind our house in a couple of week’s time.
Oh, and my thumb is recovering too!
A couple of days later, we were at the Port of Brisbane Visitor Centre with the Vixen giant bino’s when my wife spotted a Jabiru with a rubber ring part way along its beak. We noticed some Ranger type people nearby so we called them over and they were astounded by the views of the distressed bird through the Vixen 30x125’s and the WO 80 ED II.
They tried to set a snare but were unsuccessful and in the meantime I managed to grab a couple of photos through the WO 80 with the Pentax *istDS. We e-mailed the photos to a local bird rescue organisation and they were very pleased to be able to use them as part of educating industry and the public not to pollute our local waterways and environment. The Rangers contacted some birding rescue organisation so hopefully they will be able to remove the offending ring.
Cheers
Dennis