My friend Michelle, who lives down in Florida, went behind her house where there is a waterway and saw this bird:
The bird was weak and hungry, it had something caught around it's beak. It couldn't open it's mouth and it couldn't get this material off it's beak. It settled in for a nap, probably too weak to do much else. Michelle ran inside to call her husband, Kurt to come and help. Kurt jerry-rigged a net on the end of a pole and managed to catch the bird and remove this stuff from around it's beak:
He released the bird into the waterway and they held their breaths watching to see if it would have the strength to swim and hunt.
Moments later it caught a fish and gulped it down whole! Here you can see it going down it's throat!
Perhaps not the best day for the fish... but since this story is about the bird, it's a miracle of timing and personality. These two people saw an animal suffering and decided to do something about it. Many others would have clucked their tongues and decided there was nothing to be done... "cruel nature" and all. Michelle and Kurt are both heroes in my book (and I suspect the bird's book), but since Kurt did the MacGuyvering, he gets the hero citation! Left to me? I probably wouldn't have used my noodle in that situation. I would have waded in and tried to catch the bird by hand, getting my butt chewed by alligators in the process. Smart Kurt!
So next time you see some animal suffering... try and think if there's something you can do. This only took 5 minutes. Oh, and please don't throw this type of trash away without cutting it up into small pieces.
(20 points to first person to correctly name the type of bird)
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2 comments:
I LOVE this post!!! SO TURE!!!!! Does not take much at all just a little heart!!!!
He's my hero too :)
Wanted to add that when I told this story to my son he said he'd done the exact same thing at his school. He spotted an Anahinga with a sock, of all things, wrapped around and in it's beak. Thankfully, he too was able to catch the bird and free its beak. Given that these birds have serrated inner beaks (keeps the fish they eat from getting away too easily) that is no easy task. These stories are great reminders that anything that gets tossed out can cause injury to an animal. Never litter and cut up what you throw away.
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