Rudman's city:What you should do when people give you the bird

You hear of babies left on doorsteps ... but an injured seabird?

It was a first for me. Saturday lunchtime I walk in my front gate to find hidden behind my fence, filling my blue recycling bin, a large and nervous young black-backed gull. (It was actually mottled brown, but black-backed, I'm told, is what it was.)

Now the odd injured sparrow I can cope with. In early summer my front courtyard is something of a killing field as the neighbourhood cats gather for the first solo flights of young sparrows from their homes in my ivy-clad wall.

But a damaged young gull was a new experience. Not something I could scoop behind a bush and leave for nature to take its course.

Nothing seemed broken and there was no blood. But it couldn't stand, try as it might.

The local vet's receptionist wasn't enthusiastic about taking on an uninsured customer. Over the phone she diagnosed a probable pulled leg muscle. With a few hours' rest at my place it might somehow heal up and the bird would be off.

Now I have my shoulder. After a month of physio and painkillers, I know such problems don't come right in three hours.

Her other option was the needle.

I decided to go for a water and fish diet.

I carried my binload around to the back and eased it out on to the deck. Then I went for some water.

Leaving the patient alone was a mistake. In all the excitement, it raised itself to its feet, collapsed to one side a couple of times and, as I returned, fell down a step and through the gap behind to the ground underneath.

The good news is that the deck is only about 60cm high; the bad, that the surrounding shrubbery leaves meant my only access was through the gaps in the steps.

I went off to buy fish. It was a good move. The patient was partial to hand-fed tarakihi. But we both gave up on the water. With his wonky leg, my shoulder and difficult access, it was just too hard.

Sunday morning the SPCA put me on to Pam Howlett of Tamaki Bird Rescue. Bring it out, says Pam. Which was great except for the little matter of extracting the bird from its below-deck prison.

This involved unbolting the steps without dropping the spanner on the bird. Sensing danger, it lurched out of harm's way. Access achieved, it was then a matter of lying flat on my face and tossing a towel over the bird to stop it moving further out of reach. Recaptured, it was back in the recycling bin and off to the Tamaki Estuary.

At the gate to Pam's place I was met by a cute black and white cormorant - a shag to you and me, but Pam called it by the classier name - with a nest-building twig in its mouth. It turned up eight years ago with a broken wing and quickly worked out it was on to a good thing. Now it's one of the trusties, used to calm new inmates. It worked on me.

The section was full of ducks, pigeons and assorted seabirds.

Pam cuddled my gull under one arm and agreed it was a muscular problem - probably caused by car strike. It happened a lot to juvenile gulls at this time of the year. Young petrels had a different problem. They headed for the bright lights downtown and kept flying into the Sky Tower.

I looked at her sideways but she swore people were picking them up regularly.

She and four other volunteer bird ladies across the region work from home, tending to 10,000 birds a year. To our shame, Auckland doesn't have a wildlife hospital. Happily, on Sunday, I tracked down Pam. If you need their help, the SPCA, phone 256-7300, will direct you to the closest.

And whoever it was who discarded the gull in my bin, the SPCA will tell you where to send your donation.