_{Source: https://www.citizen.co.za/parys-gazette/news/2025/07/31/rescued-gulls-find-their-way-to-the-parys-wetland-area/
Written by: Liezl Scheepers, Parys Gazette.}

The Parys Wetland area will soon have a couple of new feathered residents. These Grey-headed Gull chicks arrived in Parys over the weekend and are being cared for by a member of the Feather’s Bird Club, Marisa Louw.

They are part of the 176 Grey-headed Gull chicks and 200 eggs, recently rescued from a nesting site that was scheduled for construction. The rescue was done by members of the SA Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, and assisted by the West Wild NPC team. The birds had to be rescued because the dam they were nesting at is undergoing maintenance. Based on past experience, leaving them equates disaster with chicks scattering, nests abandoned and a tragic swan dive into freezing calamity.

Friends of Free Wildlife offered to take on 50 of the youngsters, and after checking the local status of the species and realising that they are perfect residents for wetlands, Marisa also offered to take in a batch.

Marisa has raised birds since she was a child. At the age of 17, the first bird she officially raised was a Marsh Owl. “He lost a wing, and our vet at the time asked me to rehab him,” recalls Marisa. “After about a year, we released him to the Johannesburg Zoo. For a while thereafter, I haven’t worked with birds, but focused on dogs,” she says.

Since 2000 she has worked with many different birds. Although she does not have formal training, Marisa studied BSc Zoology and wanted to become a vet. “But the universe led me on a different path. Now that I’m semi-retired, I have time again to help wildlife,” Marisa added.

She has, in the meantime, applied for her wildlife permit and will be establishing a formal rehab and rescue centre in Parys. She already received a sponsorship for building materials. “This means that I will be networking with other rehab centres to start rehabilitating and releasing birds to populate our local wetlands”, Marisa said On Wednesday morning, she confirmed that the twelve chicks are doing fine, although four that were very weak were lost earlier in the week.