Aidan Curtis
BAY Road was closed to traffic along the Blue Lake/Warwar on Thursday afternoon for an unusual animal rescue operation.
A yellow-tailed black cockatoo was reported to be stuck and in distress in the upper branches of a tree near the Leg of Mutton Lake/Yatton Loo car park.
The bird had been unable to fly off for the majority of the day, but was too high up for rescuers to consider climbing the tree.
National Parks and Wildlife SA district ranger Ross Anderson was on the scene and said they needed to call in a crane to get rescuers up into the canopy to free the bird.
Mr Anderson admitted it was a very unusual situation to rescue a bird from a tree, but it was still important to help out.
He said the assumption from the ground was that the bird had become tangled in plastic or twine, which had wrapped around the branches in turn.
“These are a long-lived species of bird, they can live 50 or 60 years, so if it’s rescued it has a good future ahead of it,” he said.
“It’s in a pretty visible area, people have noticed it up there, so I think we’re obliged to try and help the animal out.
“It’s probably a community expectation that we do help out wildlife, particularly when we’ve caused the problem.”
A crane from Williams Crane Hire was called in to get the height needed for the rescue, and rigger Saxon Williams said it was a novel experience for him.
“I haven’t rescued many animals with the crane before,” he said.
“It’s good fun, I enjoy the views, it’s always good when I get to go up in the basket.”
In the basket with Mr Williams was National Parks and Wildlife SA fire operations officer Phil Sims, who braved the heights to rescue the bird.
Mr Sims said the problem was not actually man-made, and the bird’s tail feathers had somehow gotten caught in the tree’s branches.
He said the feathers in question were ripped out when the bird panicked during the attempted rescue, freeing it from the tree.
It was seen flying away, minus a few feathers, after a quick rest in a different part of the tree.
