Goliath Heron rescued at Bluff golf club
The bird was found with an orange plastic onion pocket tightly wrapped around its beak.
A distressed Goliath Heron, that was found at the Bluff National Park Golf Club with nylon wrapped around his beak for days, was rescued after a plea to assist the bird was sent out to the community.
Quick to heed the call was wildlife enthusiast, Warren Dick, and members from the Centre for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (Crow), who removed the nylon from the bird’s beak on Monday afternoon, 31 May.
“The poor bird had what looked like an orange plastic onion pocket tightly wrapped around its beak. I’m not sure if this is a result of illegal fishing activities on the golf course, or whether it’s rubbish washed down the canal. The municipality had rubbish traps at both ends of the canal that feeds the golf course, unfortunately, these broke a long while back and have not been repaired, so the beautiful lake is full of all sorts of plastic waste,” said a disheartened Warren.
Crow operations director, Clint Halkett-Siddall said that they had been attempting to catch it previously before the successful capture this week. The Goliath Heron is currently recovering at the centre.
“Our first attempt at catching the bird was unsuccessful as he was fully flighted and wouldn’t let us anywhere near him. The dam he made himself refuge in had an incredibly thick substrate that made climbing in to catch him extremely difficult. After coming back empty handed, we started coming up with alternative methods to try and catch this bird. We decided the only way to catch a fully flighted bird would be to construct a trap big enough to lure him in with food. His condition deteriorated quicker than the trap could be built and we ended up being able to launch on the bird, freeing him of the netting. The netting had completely shut this defenceless bird’s beak closed making it impossible to eat and drink. He was losing weight and strength very quickly and we are so thankful that we were able to catch him in time,” said Halkett-Siddall.
Duncan Pratt from the Bluff National Park Golf Club said, “The pollution in the waterways at the golf course generates relentlessly from the sources that feed into the low areas of the course and is doing untold damage to bird and fish life. Without the selfless heroics of these people, these species would be under more threat. Standing nearly 1,5m and with a wingspan of 2m the Goliath Heron is the largest heron in the world and reason enough to protect this wonderful asset at the heart of the Bluff.”
