On a cold morning in early June, a morepork and a Solid Energy coal truck crossed paths on SH1 between Gore and Invercargill and the morepork came off worst. The bird had flown into the truck's radiator grille where it stayed wedged for the best part of the day, taking two return trips between Gore and Invercargill.
When the truck came back to the Solid Energy depot near Gore, the driver alerted stripping supervisor Neville Arnesen to the bird lodged in the grille.
‘‘The driver knew he had hit it but assumed it had died instantly,'' Mr Arnesen said.
‘‘Then he called me over and told me he thought the bird was still alive, so we got him out and I saw it was quite alert and it was moving its head around so I took it to the vet.''
VetSouth veterinarian Hugh Hasselman said the bird had probably been saved from hypothermia and wind chill by the heat of the radiator.
‘‘An examination and X-ray confirmed that the humerus bone in one wing was shattered, with bone sticking out of an open wound,'' Mr Hasselman said.
The bird was started on antibiotics, warmed up and given some food.
Mr Hasselman took the morepork home for the first night. His son Tommy (8) took a liking to his new feathered friend and helped with frequent small feeds of boiled eggs and meat.
Mr Hasselman said it was difficult to tell if the morepork was male or female so a multi-gender name was chosen. Tommy named the morepork Francis/Frances.
Once strong enough, Francis/ Frances had surgery to place pins in the wing to support the fractured bone. The owl then had a four-week recovery period in the clinic where the vet nurses looked after it. At first they had to hand-feed it three times a day until the owl started to feed itself.
Its progress was monitored and once there was X-ray evidence of good healing, one of the pins in the wing was removed. However, the inevitable muscle atrophy over this time would need to be reversed if Francis/Frances was ever to fly well again.
A long-term home had to be found for Francis/Frances where there was more room to move and rehabilitate in From Page 1
a protected environment. A space was found at the Department of Conservation (Doc) aviary in Te Anau, right on the edge of Fiordland National Park.
Earlier this month, when the morepork was well enough to be moved, Mr Hasselman and Tommy delivered the bird to Doc. Francis/Frances was checked into its new living quarters and is reported to be doing well.
If the morepork's progress continues, it will probably be moved to a larger enclosure which includes a beech tree and a night light to attract moths and other insects.
