A cyclist suffered an anaphylactic reaction after being attacked by a magpie.

'It smashed me really hard': Cyclist suffers an anaphylactic reaction after magpie swooped and scratched her face while she was cycling

Mellissa Gregory was bike riding with partner when she was attacked by magpie 

She claims the bird swooped and drew blood from her face causing it to swell

She was rushed to hospital leaving doctors confused over anaphylactic reaction 

By SAHAR MOURAD FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

PUBLISHED: 14:37, 2 November 2019 | UPDATED: 14:37, 2 November 2019

Mellissa Gregory was bike riding with her partner at Chelsea's Bicentennial Park in Melbourne's south when a magpie swooped and attacked her face three times.

She claims the bird drew blood from her face causing it to swell from an allergic reaction. 

'Out of nowhere I just get hit in the side of the face,' she told 7NEWS.

'Next thing I know there's just blood everywhere... It honestly smashed into me really hard.'

Ms Gregory was rushed to hospital and doctors were left confused over the anaphylactic reaction. 

Continued

Australia's first tufted duck sighting creates a 'mega-twitch' at sewage pond

Bird-watchers flock to Werribee treatment plant, near Melbourne, to see Eurasia native

Calla Wahlquist

Tue 15 Jan 2019 06.46 GMTLast modified on Tue 15 Jan 2019 06.48 GMT

The Werribee sewage ponds are one of the most popular bird-watching locations in Australia. On a good day, says Birdlife Australia’s Sean Dooley, you may see as many as five or six other cars there.

That was before the tufted duck arrived.

 “I counted when I left, there were 35 cars of birders,” Dooley said, adding: “It was a mega-twitch.”

“It’s the biggest twitching event I have witnessed first-hand in Australia — it felt like I was in England,” he said.

The cause of all this fuss is a rather unassuming-looking black duck with white flanks and bright yellow eyes. It was spotted and identified by some visiting American twichers on 2 January as a male tufted duck, Aythya fuligula, a species of diving duck native to northern Eurasia but not uncommonly found in coastal areas in North America.

It is the first time the species has been sighted in Australia.

The visiting twitchers alerted the locals, who shared the find on social media.

Continued  

Humans v birds: poorly managed urban growth squeezes biodiversity

Melbourne bird survey supports research suggesting native species thrive better if planning includes environmental reserves, rather than backyards

Calla Wahlquist

Thu 31 May 2018 09.12 BST

Last modified on Thu 31 May 2018 22.56 BST

The outskirts of Melbourne are a maze of newly-paved culs-de-sac. Freestanding homes twist in on each other, filling the footprint of their small street blocks.

On the other side of the road, short wooden stakes have been tied with fluorescent tape to mark out the next development.

It is a seemingly never ending process to house Melbourne’s rapidly expanding population, which grew 2.3% to 4.85 million people in 2016-17.

But environmental scientists say that unless planners change the way they provide for this growth it will come at the cost of biodiversity.

A new study published online in the British Ecological Society journal this week found that development models based on a “land sharing” approach, where native species are provided with habitat in the form of the inter-connected backyards and tree-lined streets of a low-density suburb, performed poorly compared to a model of medium-density housing alongside continuous tracts of environmental reserve, known as a “land sparing” model.

A survey of bird species in 28 parcels of land throughout Melbourne’s northern and eastern suburbs, including four reserves, found that half of the native species observed decreased significantly in proportion to the density of human occupation, and 13 species were only found in reserves.

Some species, such as rainbow lorikeets, magpies and red wattlebirds were abundant throughout the suburbs.

But to maximise the diversity of native bird species, the study concluded, large tracts of native vegetation must be included alongside urban areas.

Continued  

Love is in the air: Critically endangered Helmeted Honeyeaters have bumper breeding season

By Melissa Cunningham & AAP

14 February 2018 — 10:57pm

A critically-endangered bird species, native only to Victoria, has recorded a bumper breeding season, bringing it one step closer to staving off extinction.

Thirty-six Helmeted Honeyeater couples in Melbourne's east have raised 61 fledglings so far, with hope for more before the end of the breeding season in March.

Of the 36 couples, 24 birds are first-time parents.

"This is fantastic news for the recovery program, as it means the birds that are reaching breeding age are replacing lost birds or, in some cases, finding their own breeding sites," Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning ornithologist Bruce Quin told AAP.

"It's also a big positive for the conservation program as it shows there is enough quality habitat to support a population increase."

The small, yellow-tufted species have been steadily making a comeback from near-extinction due to a more than three decade-long conservation program.

The Helmeted Honeyeater is Victoria's bird emblem, but it's survival rate on release from captivity sits at less than 40 per cent.

Last year, numbers of the yellow-breasted bird dwindled to 190.

But, increasing numbers of the species is only half the battle.

When a Helmeted Honeyeater enters the wild, it not only fails to evade its main predators, but often flies directly towards them, resulting in its untimely death.

The reason for this, is that Helmeted Honeyeaters have little understanding of what to fear.

Continued 

Surge in eye injuries as Melbourne magpies go on attack spree

Hospital issues warning as ‘extraordinary’ spate of bird-inflicted injuries include a penetrated eye that required surgery

Australian Associated Press

Thursday 19 October 2017 03.54 BSTLast modified on Thursday 19 October 2017 04.04 BST

A penetrated eye that needed surgery is just one of an “extraordinary” spate of magpie-inflicted injuries in Melbourne, and one hospital has issued a warning about the swooping birds.

The number of eye injuries caused by the bird has risen significantly, according to the emergency director of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear hospital, Dr Carmel Crock.

 “Normally, we might see one or two a month,” she told ABC radio on Thursday. “But in July we saw 14 cases of bird eye injuries. August there were 12.

“In the last week, we saw five in the one day, including a penetrating eye injury that needed to go to theatre.”

Many attacks took place in Lonsdale Street, Punt Road, Lygon Street and Heffernan Lane in the CBD, Crock said.

The “extraordinary” number of incidents led several staff registrars to ask hospital executives to take action, she said. “We really just did want to warn the public.

“Although a lot of the injuries are quite minor … they can really go all the way through and cause a penetrating injury, with bleeding and bruising at the back of the eye.”

Australia’s swooping season starts in spring as predominantly male magpies dive down on cyclists, pedestrians and runners who go near nests.

There have been 3,253 recorded attacks and 518 injuries linked to magpies across the country in 2017, according to the Magpie Alert website.

Read on  

Rare albino sparrow spotted in Australia

The albino was photographed at Sanctuary Lakes near Melbourne, but it is not expected to survive long with its snowy white plumage making it stand out to birds of prey.

POSTED: 25 May 2015 15:16

SYDNEY: A rare pure white sparrow has been spotted in Australia, leaving ornithologists all aflutter Monday (May 25).

The albino was photographed at Sanctuary Lakes near Melbourne, but it is not expected to survive long with its snowy white plumage making it stand out to birds of prey.

Bob Winters, a birdwatching expert and environmental educator, photographed the animal after being alerted to its presence by a friend. But it wasn't an easy task.

"It's a very nervous animal, understandably, so I had to try for quite a few days to get some photos," he told AFP, adding that pure white sparrows had been seen globally only "once in a blue moon".

Australian media said there had been a handful of confirmed sightings of the bird across the world, including one reported in Britain in 2010.

Continued ...

153 birds part of huge illegal cockfighting ring

ANIMAL welfare authorities have removed 153 cockfighting birds from a Lovely Banks property after statewide raids.

The RSPCA and police broke up a large cockfighting ring and seized more than 400 roosters in Melbourne's outer west in September.

Officers said it was one of the biggest rings discovered in Victoria.

John Ung, of Anakie Rd, Lovely Banks, faced Sunshine Magistrates' Court on November 9, charged with being found in a common gaming place and attending a fighting event.

He was ordered to surrender his 153 roosters and banned from owning poultry for 10 years.

RSPCA inspector Hugh Robinson said officers went to the Anakie Rd property last week to remove the roosters, which they believed had been used in cockfighting. He said the birds were destroyed.

"These animals are bred for cockfighting and groomed and housed in a manner that depicts this," he said.

"They're very aggressive and will attack.

"Unfortunately they cannot be rehomed."

The RSPCA said it was an offence under state and federal animal cruelty laws to allow gamecocks to fight, to possess cockfighting implements, or own a bird for the purposes of fighting.

It's also an animal cruelty offence to attend a cockfight.

Melbourne police swooped on a Rockbank property on September 9 and charged more than 80 people after investigations into the illegal gaming.

Mr Robinson said two offenders from the Geelong area had also faced court in the past month on separate matters unrelated to cockfighting.

Reggae Rodaughan, of Chaffey Square, Corio, was charged with aggravated cruelty and fined $500 on November 2.

The offence related to a mastiff that developed osteomyelitis in a front leg after being attacked by another dog.

On the same day, Daniel Hose, of Forrest Rd, Lara, faced the Geelong Magistrates' Court, charged with failing to provide vet treatment.

He was fined $500.

The offence related to a goat found on his property that was missing half a front leg.

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