{"id":499551,"date":"2026-06-28T12:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/499551\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T12:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:19:12","slug":"bird-rescue-seeing-more-animals-in-worse-condition-amid-wellingtons-wild-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/499551\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird rescue seeing more animals in worse condition amid Wellington\u2019s wild weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bird was given fluids and fresh fish by Nyssa Skorji, the head rehabilitator and founder of the rescue. <\/p>\n

The second was a fairy prion in bad shape and needing antibiotics after it was brought into an Upper Hutt home by a cat.<\/p>\n

These were two of the 600 birds Flock Birdcare had cared for so far this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe seabirds are really having a hard time with the crazy weather we keep having,\u201d Skorji said. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe fairy prion was in worse condition than the mottled petrel and needed antibiotics before being transferred to Wellington Zoo.<\/p>\n

She said injured seabirds needed specialised care to protect their waterproofing and prevent them from becoming hypothermic. <\/p>\n

The petrel and the prion were now heading to The Nest Te K\u014dhanga at Wellington Zoo, a rehabilitation centre. <\/p>\n

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<\/a>, including several albatrosses.<\/p>\n

Roads in Lower Hutt \u201cessentially exploded\u201d in that storm,<\/a> as heavy rain and overflowing storm drains caused water to burst up through the ground.<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis 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.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a state of emergency was declared for the south coast of Wellington because of forecast high swells. <\/a><\/p>\n

In April, properties across Wellington\u2019s southern suburbs were flooded and damaged by slips, with residents recounting the horror of waking up to waist-high water in their bedrooms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Karori man Philip Sutton died in the storm after being washed away in flash flooding that destroyed his rural home.<\/p>\n

Severe weather events were not the only drivers of injured seabirds.<\/p>\n

\"AA juvenile shag being examined after it was brought into the Lower Hutt rescue earlier this year.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Skorji felt grateful that members of the public had used her rescue\u2019s resources to safely contain the birds found this week before contacting her. <\/p>\n

\"SkorjiSkorji was able to rescue this mollymawk after it was found in a Wellington carpark during a storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also thanked one of the rescue\u2019s volunteers who brought the injured birds freshly caught fish and prawns \u2013 from the supermarket \u2013 to eat as they recovered. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, wildlife rehabilitation is whatever works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bird was given fluids and fresh fish by Nyssa Skorji, the head rehabilitator and founder of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[534,50,44486,17517,35875,19976,1288,1239,23855,78,130,111,43,139,69,49478,8527,312,8601,2848,131,4519,4998,52,15900,15391,40866],"class_list":["post-499551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-amid","tag-animals","tag-battering","tag-because","tag-bird","tag-birds","tag-capital","tag-condition","tag-frequent","tag-in","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-receiving","tag-rescue","tag-says","tag-seeing","tag-severe","tag-than","tag-usual","tag-weather","tag-wellington","tag-wellingtons","tag-wild","tag-worse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}