Bird rescue seeing more animals in worse condition amid Wellington’s wild weather

The bird was given fluids and fresh fish by Nyssa Skorji, the head rehabilitator and founder of the rescue.

The second was a fairy prion in bad shape and needing antibiotics after it was brought into an Upper Hutt home by a cat.

These were two of the 600 birds Flock Birdcare had cared for so far this year.

“The seabirds are really having a hard time with the crazy weather we keep having,” Skorji said.

The fairy prion was in worse condition than the mottled petrel and needed antibiotics before being transferred to Wellington Zoo.

She said injured seabirds needed specialised care to protect their waterproofing and prevent them from becoming hypothermic.

The petrel and the prion were now heading to The Nest Te Kōhanga at Wellington Zoo, a rehabilitation centre.

In February, the zoo raised more than $18,000 to help take care of 20 sick and injured birds that were swept up in a storm, including several albatrosses.

Roads in Lower Hutt “essentially exploded” in that storm, as heavy rain and overflowing storm drains caused water to burst up through the ground.

This Australasian Gannet was brought to Flock Birdcare from a vet clinic in Porirua which was taking care of the bird before it lost power during the February storm and was at risk of flooding.

Earlier this month, a state of emergency was declared for the south coast of Wellington because of forecast high swells.

In April, properties across Wellington’s southern suburbs were flooded and damaged by slips, with residents recounting the horror of waking up to waist-high water in their bedrooms.

Karori man Philip Sutton died in the storm after being washed away in flash flooding that destroyed his rural home.

Severe weather events were not the only drivers of injured seabirds.

A juvenile shag being examined after it was brought into the Lower Hutt rescue earlier this year.

Skorji said warmer ocean temperatures were pushing fish stocks further offshore, which meant seabirds had to travel further to feed and arrived at her rescue underweight and exhausted.

Her rescue also noticed an uptick in debilitated pied shags, having cared for three in June alone, which she believed showed local coastal birds were under the same pressure.

Skorji felt grateful that members of the public had used her rescue’s resources to safely contain the birds found this week before contacting her.

Skorji was able to rescue this mollymawk after it was found in a Wellington carpark during a storm.

“The young woman whose cat brought in the prion even woke up her grandparents in the middle of the night to drive her out to us.”

She also thanked one of the rescue’s volunteers who brought the injured birds freshly caught fish and prawns – from the supermarket – to eat as they recovered.

“Sometimes, wildlife rehabilitation is whatever works.”

Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.