Waikanae Estuary Newsletter No 126 August 2017 http://www.kapitibirdtours.co.nz/ Waikanae the wild bird Capital of New Zealand

TJ the Goose. It was April 2012 and Thomas, our famous Waikanae goose produced his first brood with a mate of his own kind after being in a "gay" relationship with Henry the black swan for thirty years. This was exciting news until the other geese in the gaggle took his brood off him and ostracized him, not letting him raise his own babies. Move on to July 2013 when onto the lagoons limped a Canada goose in trouble with one of his wings down. To the rescue came the team from SPCA, plus Mik and Liz, with her three canoes. We managed to capture the goose after a chase around the lagoon when it tried to hide under a bush. Off to Craig Shepard's Rehabilitation Trust it went. It had an open fracture to the left wing and was taken to Vet Christine Mander. Due to the seriousness of the fracture and the extent of the infection half of the left wing had to be amputated. Celine as Craig named it had been shot! it will never fly again. After some weeks recovering she came back to the Waimanu lagoon. In the mean time Thomas the goose became blind and also ended up at Craig Shepard's Thomas 's first brood On the bottom lagoon by the weir a white goose established himself away from the gaggle, of around thirty birds. We presumed that this bird could be one of Thomas's brood as it is behaving just like he did, having nothing to do with the other geese.

Around three years ago the Canada goose, Celine and the white goose now named TJ [ Thomas Junior] by Craig, formed a relationship and became inseparable. They have found that living like they do on the bottom lagoon, near where the freedom campers stay over night, is a neat place, as they can entice the campers to give them tit bits: over time they became very tame. In flew three young Canada geese and formed a little family. The only problem is that becoming so tame put them in danger from the vans and cars. Now celine has disappeared and TJ has been injured with its dislocated leg sticking out to one side . Craig's Establishment

An E/mail from Max. Recently whilst out walking I discovered the white goose with his right leg limp and dangling at his side - floating in the water. I called the SPCA to inform them of the injured goose, they tried to get an officer out to the area. However the local officer on call said that the goose was hard to catch, but they are aware of his leg. I asked them if there is anything else that can be done, but unfortunately it didn't seem a priority. That evening I went back down to the estuary, I drove around in the pitch black (there is no lighting at the estuary) until I saw a white spot out the corner of my eye in the glow of my cars headlights. I got out and walked over to the goose who was sitting on the bank of the waters edge, I saw three of his Canadian pals lingering in the water very closely nearby - obviously concerned about their friend .He was still visibly injured and shaken, So I took matters into my own hands and talked to the goose for a few minutes(build some kind of rapport) before attempting to cover his head with a blanket(an attempt to not distress him) and picked him up and tucked him under my arm whilst walking back to the car. Once at the car, putting him on a sleeping bag in the boot of

my car, he didn't fight me once, he was calm and collected as if he knew he was getting help. A conversation between my mother and I ensued and she called Care Vets in Paraparaumu and they were more than happy to take in the bird until something could be done for him. I dropped him off that evening around 7pm just as the Vets was closing (they stayed open waiting for him to arrive).He was looked after by the lovely ladies at the centre whilst he stayed there for two days. While he was at the Vets I went in and visited him in case I was to not see him again due to his injuries. They housed him in a large cage on a nice comfortable bed and placed a bowl of cat biscuits in front of him - he was more than happy. [After finding out where the bird had gone I arranged for Craig Shepard to take care of it. Mik]

Max again--Craig who is devoted to helping birds, volunteers and takes birds in to his home where he cares for them, with rehab and recovery before releasing the birds back to the wild or allowing them to live at his property. We don't know what happened to him, or how his leg ended up in such a bad way, but it is a busy area with a lot of tourists in campervans and the geese are relatively tame therefore they don't always get out of the way of people and possibly vehicles. I originally thought the White goose was Thomas, the iconic goose known around Waikanae. However I realised that he, [Thomas] has been living at Craig's property for some time now. The goose I have grown fond of his in fact a new goose, however he seems to have been at the estuary for some time, he is unusual and unique as he seems to only pair up with the Canadian geese, being completely separated from the group of around thirty domestic geese that live down at the estuary. He is the odd one out, but they (the 4 Canadian geese) seem to love him. For that reason he can be called Thomas the second.-- Max

These are not Kentucky Fried chickens --only an x/ray of our unfortunate goose. showing his leg before and after surgery , E/Mails from Craig Hi Mik I have attached the two radiographs (x-rays) of TJ which have circles drawn on them. The

first one was taken from above him before anything was done and the second was taken whilst unconscious post-surgery while he was on his back. The first one shows a massive dislocation in the right leg and you will see from the second post-surgery one that the limb joints are nearly fully aligned and whilst they could not get the lower limb inserted back into the socket due to muscle contraction it is far better aligned and will now hopefully fuse giving it a more functional limb albeit being a “frozen” limb. There is still quite a way to go in terms of post-operative care and rehab with post-surgery infection being the initial big risk. We consider TJ to have a “guarded prognosis” at the moment but euthanasia was the previous other option. Another E/Mail -- Hi Mik-- I have just bought TJ home from the vet and he looks comfortable. We will never know what caused TJ’s dislocation sadly. I would like to specifically thank Max Howe who took the trouble to rescue it in the first place and the wonderful team at Crofton Downs Veterinary Clinic Who put a lot of time and effort into TJ.

If anyone would care to contribute to TJ’s veterinary care and on-going rehab tax-deductible donations can be made at: https://givealittle.co.nz/org/Duckman kind regards Craig.

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