There are people who love birds: identifying species or enjoying birdsong. And then there’s San Remo’s Gary Matthews, who goes above and beyond in his dedication to feathered friends.
Gary is a member of the Victorian Wader Study Group, each year flying to the likes of Broome in Western Australia to count and catch birds for science, from red-necked stints to pied oystercatchers and crested terns.
But pelicans are his really fascination, which started about 20 years ago when he saw a pelican come in to land on water. “It used its wings and feet as brakes and then skidded across the top of the water. To this day I still love to see pelicans land and take off,” Gary says. “Then I volunteered to catch injured pelicans, many with fishhooks and fishing tackle wrapped around their legs or wings. Now I am hooked and pelicans are my favourite birds.”
He’s a coordinator of the Westernport Pelican Study Group (WPSG), a volunteer group that catches the enormous birds in the name of science and conservation.
Catching, as you can imagine, is no easy task. “I’ve been pecked and my face has been scratched from the forehead down,” he says.“I’ve even had my backside pecked.”
Several times a year Gary and volunteers from Phillip Island and San Remo attempt to get a firm grasp on pelicans in order to tag, weigh, measure and monitor age, gender, and health status, with records collated for education and conservation. Their success rate is not always high. “About 75 per cent of the time we don’t get one,” he says. “At Corinella we’ve tried to catch them for three years and we’ve had success twice in that time. At Newhaven we’ve had more luck. They recognise us and fly away when we come near. They know what we’re up to.”
Like a handful of bird volunteers around Australia he has a host of permits, from the state environment department, Parks Victoria and an animal ethics permit. His A-class permit means he has caught 500 or more birds and is able to band birds.
Since starting their work in 2018, the self-funded citizen science WPSG has caught a total of about 40 birds, each banded and some fitted with tracking devices (weighing 90g). “It’s important work because no one has done a study of Australian pelicans in Victoria and we need to know more about them, to help conserve the species, and the places where they live.” Gary says the WPSG relies on the public to keep an eye out for the tags.
He says before he started working with the birds he thought they weren’t especially smart. “But they’ve proved me wrong big time. They’re very intelligent and the more I deal with them the more I have to think and strategise about ways to approach them.”
By Sarah Hudson
Photos: Sarah Hudson