In these stressful days when everybody is worried about paying their bills and getting by in a crazy world it is good to know that kindness to wild creatures exists..
When you travel on your own you tend to meet more people, interesting people. So it was when I visited Kenya at the ripe young age of 25. I met an extraordinary lady called Joni Waites, an American artist based in Nairobi who lived in a thatched house she had made herself on the Atthi Plains. She had been married to the owner of the large ranch there and basically refused to leave when they divorced, living in her house with a pet camel outside called Dune. Her art was fantastic – wonderful depictions of Africa’s thorny trees full of amazing negative thorny shapes. We had lots of interesting conversations and one was about looking after wild animals. I remember sharing my then young view that I really preferred animals to people and her reply really stuck with me over the years and helped me to like people more: “you know Rob that’s what makes humans special and sets us aside from most other species (not all), the ability to empathise with other creatures”. Although in some parts of society we are made to toughen up and be callous I do believe Joni was right and the majority of people are born with this amazing character of altruism not just to those of our kind but to those of another kind, as a falconer once described it to me, a desire to know other bloods. Not everyone has it perhaps, maybe it gets taken out of us as we are taught animals are there for us to use or maybe some of us put it aside because we have to make use of animals as food or business, but it is still reflected whenever you see someone walking a dog. How did that come about? It wasn’t just that domesticated wolves were useful to ancient people. People enjoy animals.
This beautiful visitor from the sea came to rest up an injury in Solva Harbour a few days ago. Maybe it was just to find the most sheltered spot to rest or maybe somehow this animal knew it might get help from people. I have certainly found that to happen over the years with injured birds of prey following a regular route to my door, often via Ffion Rees!. They do seem to know where to go. I was watching from the other side of the river when Geoff Maddock walked right up to the potentially very dangerous bird, and lent over it. I yelled out to be careful (gannets are known to do a lot of damage with their powerful beaks) but was amazed to see the bird reach up to accept some food from his hand – he had emptied his fridge supply of sausages to help it. There is a network of people like Geoff who like to help wild creatures and one of the most important roles is the announcer who phones around and doesn’t rest until they know the animal is looked after, in this case Anne Tyler in Solva who also contacted me about an injured Peregrine a few years ago. A figurehead in this network is Maria Evans who runs Tinker’s Hill Swan and rescue centre in Amroth. I lost my Harris Hawk, Zorro, once in a storm and he was found a couple of weeks later at Maria’s enjoying her LCA. So Maria offered to help the injured gannet, her vet offered to help and Gower Bird Rescue offered to help. The only thing we had to figure out was how to get the gannet from A to B to C to D. Enter friends of Anne’s, Moira Johnstone, a retired vet in Solva who helped me collect the bird safely, managing the bird and its big bill into a travel box, and Rowan and Norman Jenkins who very kindly drove the bird in the box to Maria’s vet in Milford Haven. It looked like quite a bad leg injury, at least not a wing, so we now hope for the best for this patient..
(not recommended to get within range of that beak, and another thing please dont ever tape up that beak because gannets dont have nostrils for their diving and so will suffocate if you do)
It just made me very happy to see this network working well and helps me restore my faith in human nature
Unfortunately sad news just received from Maria that the injury was not mendable in this case but important to try to help. Sad, but still very glad to see such kindness and a system of support out there.