One of the most delightful of ocean birds was buffeted and bashed so much by the recent storms that it ended up confused and lost in industrial Fyshwick.
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But the saga of the wayward white-bellied storm petrel has a happy ending. It has been cared for and just released 10 kilometres out to sea.
The rescuers named it Xavier after Australian singing star, Xavier Rudd, and his immensely popular album, Storm Boy.
Xavier, the storm petrel, is tiny but gives a big insight into the magnitude of the storms which buffeted the country.
The bird normally breeds on Lord Howe Island but then spends the rest of its time out to sea. This one was spotted in distress in Fyshwick on Tuesday, last week.
If it hadn't been rescued, it would have died. It survived because it was taken to Wildcare, Queanbeyan where Melissa Pearce gave it life support.
She mashed up whitebait and force-fed the bird. "I gently opened its little beak and pushed the food to the back of its mouth. Then held the beak closed and rubbed its throat to make it swallow.
"He was absolutely exhausted and in shock.
"Once we got some fluid into him, gradually it started to life his head and stretch his wings."
But it was far from home and out of sorts so Melissa Pearce drove it down to the South Coast branch of Australian Seabird Rescue where the rehabilitation continued.
"They only come to land to breed and they clearly don't breed in Fyshwick," according to Rescue Coordinator, Lisa Hood.
"Their home is out on the seas," she said.
"They are called 'storm petrels' because they thrive in storms."
But that didn't stop it being blown way off course. Bird experts are baffled because the white-bellied storm petrel normally flies barely above the surface of the ocean. So low is its flight path that it 'runs' on water at times.
"What these little guys do is fly very close to the surface and they use their feet to run along the water."
The bird rescuer said that it was a mystery how this particular bird which weighs about the same as a golf ball got sucked up and blown by the wind to Canberra.
"It was just sitting there in an industrial area of Fyshwick," she said.
"It was underweight and had to be force-fed.
"They are such specialised little creatures that it doesn't make sense to them to get a fish out of a dish. They usually dive for food."
A parrot, for example, will just see seed on a blossom and take it but birds that live their lives at sea (pelagic birds) aren't so discerning.
On top of feeding, the rescuers had to make sure its feathers were undamaged.
But Xavier survived and last weekend it was taken out to sea and set free to the ocean it knows so well. "Quite happily, he flew off into the distance," Melissa Pearce said.
"I feel so honoured to have cared for such a fantastic bird."
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
