TNAG-0468-FCO40-533-Legislation-for-protection-of-wild-life-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 137

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

22

PENN

PENN

a bird of prey with a tail completely shorn off, or two- thirds shorn off, wouldn't stand very much of a chance in catching its food when it was released. And tails were probably the main reason why I rejected many otherwise apparently healthy birds.

Many of the birds - a selection of eagles, falcons, buzzards and developed sinusitis and other domestic ailments to which their poor condition made them specially vulnerable.

owls

Hechtel

Me overcame this to a certain extent by giving them antibiotics, regardless of whether they showed any signs of illness, almost immediately I got them. And we found that some of these birds

stood fantastic doses of antibiotics.

In the initial stages very often feeding them was a problem - they had to be force fed. If the bird was healthy, I found that with most specias they very quickly began to take small pieces of meat, because they were extremely hungry - nearly all of

them had a breast bone like razor.....though provided the bird wasn't too weak, and still had not contracted any of the fowl pest diseases, the chances of fattening it up were pretty good.

He kept about four at one time; and of some 90 birds about

70 survived.

Hechtel

tended to

Birds released from the roof of the house

Well of course it depended on the species. In one or two cases

buzzards flew straight into the trees and simply sat there. I released them in the early morning and they very often sat there for the whole day almost, until they were mobbed by magpies, Chinese Blue Magpies, and then they would fly into another tree. But they remained in the area for a long time

flying off in the evening.

Kestrels, however, seemed to get going very quickly. They would rise up very high, well over the Peak, and just vanish

out of sight.

One Imperial Eagle which we released on a beautiful day from the top of the Peak circled round us for ten or fifteen minutes and then headed straight up the Pearl River until it was out of sight.

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