Lucky tu¯¯ı found trapped in grille
When ‘‘Summerhill Grill’’ makes it back to his friends in the wild, he will have a great tale to tell his mates.
The unlucky, or perhaps lucky, depending on your point of view, large male tu¯¯ı found itself lodged in the front of Erinwillson’s car last week, near Palmerston North.
It could have been the end of the road for the battered and bruised bird but, in an amazing piece of luck, Willson works for the Animal Welfare Group at Massey University.
After driving on a section of road with a 100kmh limit, she stopped at a daycare centre to pick up her children.
Loading her twins into the car, she could hear some ‘‘thrashing’’ coming from the front of her car.
After lifting the bonnet, she was surprised see it was a bird.
‘‘I could see this little head and I was shocked to see it was a tu¯¯ı.’’
Lodged in the grille, it was still able to bite when she tried to help it get out.
Unable to get the grille off, Willson rang a colleague atwildbase, the School of Veterinary Science at Massey University, who said that one of the technicians was about to leave work and would deal with it on his way home.
’’They sent Tony [Russell]. He fixes everything at the out-clinic.’’
He removed the grille and extracted the still-protesting bird from the front of her car.
Amazingly, it seemed OK and tried to fly off, butwillson took it towildbase to be checked out. ‘‘I am just so glad I heard him. It was all pretty amazing. He was biting my hand and he was really feisty.’’
Wildbase Hospital and Recovery supervisor Pauline Nijman said the case was an odd one.
An X-ray showed the bird had broken no bones, so it was given fluids and antiinflammatories for the bruising.
About 50 per cent of the patients Wildbase takes in are native birds, but a tu¯¯ı stuck in a grille was a first.
Staff did not usually name the birds, but in this case a name was obvious, Nijman said.
‘‘We called him Summerhill Grille because we found him in a grill on Summerhill road.’’
Summerhill Grille has been dining out on bird formula and is being monitored to check it can fly OK, and will be released later this week.