Pam Turner has taken care of birds of all shapes and sizes in her 86 years.
But her discovery of a blue petrel, which fell at the feet of a local at Haumoana Beach, has been her most interesting and challenging rehabilitation.
The emaciated bird was being attacked by black back gulls when Ron Jackson found it between Clifton and the Tukituki River mouth on July 29.
Department of Conservation (DoC) biodiversity supervisor Kahori Nakagawa says it is the first time, that they are aware of, a blue petrel has come ashore and been rescued in Hawke’s Bay.
Turner said since Jackson’s discovery she had been committed to making sure the bird lived and had been up all hours of the night.
“It’s been more than a learning curve, it’s like climbing a mountain to know what to do for it and how to treat it and feed it,” Turner said.
Turner said her time working as a nurse with premature babies meant that tube feeding delicate birds such as the petrel was slightly easier for her.
She suspected the bird was a juvenile due to its immaculate plumage.
“It was hungry, it was terrified, it was flat, no other way to describe it other than being flat.
“The textbooks don’t tell you what to do with a constipated petrel.”
After six days, the webbed-footed bird is regaining its strength in Turner’s lounge near the front window.
It is now able to preen itself after it arrived weak, and 100 grams underweight, with bruising on its right side.
“You would pick it up and its little head would flop.”
Its rehabilitation included up to three baths a day, along with an initial diet of bee larvae, fish oil, electrolytes and vitamin tablets crushed to make a smoothie.
“It’s thrown out the shrimps that I bought it, it’s thrown out the sardines that I bought it - all it wants is anchovies now.”
Turner said she was feeling positive about the bird’s survival after it gained 45 grams.
She said the species typically spent five to seven years after the fledgling stage “cruising around the ocean” until they were mature enough to breed and return to their original fledgling ground.
Turner said it was suspected this bird was pushed off course in bad weather.
“They get storm-wrecked and get washed ashore and are only [typically] found as bodies.”
Bernie Kelly, Hawke’s Bay regional representative for Birds New Zealand, said Jackson connected the bird with the right care.
The bird was being attacked in the air by black back gulls, before it landed near Jackson’s feet, who quickly sought the help of vets in Clive and other bird experts to identify the species.
“They (black back gulls) are opportunistic; if they see a chance of a feed, they will have a go at something that is injured... they are pretty mean.”
Kelly and his team were eventually able to connect the dots and realised the bird was a blue petrel.
“It’s quite rare and you never see them around here, and if you do, they are dead.”
Nakagawa said the blue petrel was classified as “not threatened within NZ”.
“Blue petrels typically reside in the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans, with breeding colonies on subantarctic islands like Macquarie Island.”
Nakagawa said they frequent the waters around NZ and are occasionally seen as beach-wrecked individuals.
“Seabirds such as blue petrels typically subsist on a diet of crustaceans, squid and small fish.”
The bird was tagged for future tracking purposes and will eventually be returned to the beach where it was found.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.