Yesterday, I was walking out to put gas in my boat and noticed something on the beach and it wasn't moving. As I got closer, I noticed this duck looking bird (Which I call a snake bird, looks like a duck with a longer neck) and something didn't seem right. His head was down and he made a grunting sound, almost like a distressed sound.
So, I went in for a closer look and noticed something hanging from his mouth. As I approached him, he ran into the water and tried to swim away. Only problem was, whatever it was that was stuck to his beak was weighing him down and he couldn't hold his head up as he swam. Well, I wasn't about to let him get away and continue to live like this, because he wouldn't have lived much longer once we figured out what was wrong.
I called my awesome neighbor Forrest to come outside and help me trap him. My kids came out to help too, my wife, and even more neighbors and the rescue was on! Forrest went all stealth mode and got in the freezing cold water, moved slowly underneath his dock and was able to sneak up on the bird. In the picture below, you can see the sock or piece of fabric hanging off his beak and sitting on the last step. Well, Forrest was able to grab the fabric to hold the bird there and then he gently grabbed his head and held him still.
As soon as Forrest had a good hold of the bird, I took a razor and quickly cut off the majority of the fabric. But there was still a problem, there was still a piece that was wrapped around his beak so he still couldn't open his mouth to eat or drink. Well, the bird was understandably nervous when we were holding him. But I'll tell you something very cool, once we cut the big piece of fabric off and that little guy could hold his head up again, he calmed down. I swear it was like he know that we were truly there to help him and not hurt him.
In the video, you can see us gently picking away at this very small and tight fabric that somehow got stuck on his teeth in his mouth, but also wrapped around his beak and it was tight, really tight! Who knows how long it had been that way or how long it had been since he was able to eat or drink.
But Forrest was able to hold him and pull the fabric away as I carefully cut it and the coolest thing was this...
As soon as Forrect got the last piece off, he let the bird go and that little guy jumped in the water with his head held high like he was finally free and went and joined some ducks in FOrrext's backyard. I snapped this picture of him right after the release with him sunning himself and drying his wings. Check him out, head held high and back to good!
Big shout out to my neighbor Forrest for doing 99% of the work. Getting in that cold water and holding the bird was no easy task, but he was able to and we were able to save him. Never a dull moment on the lake, but this was a cool one we will never forget and we even named him. So, hopefully out new adopted bird we named "Brantley" will stick around so we can keep an eye on him.
