Fledgling Rescued

Bird Hug
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder.

Katie did her good deed for the day this afternoon, while we were out exercising the dog. Jake and I were walking, but Katie had elected to ride her bike, and was pedalling ahead of us as we walked Badger along the beach.

It was here, while searching for feathers, she came across a baby seagull tangled up in discarded fishing tackle. We tried to remove the tackle on the beach, but only managed to remove one hook from its beak and another from its foot. I quickly realised we were going to have to take the bird home where I could use some tools to cut away the rest of the mess.

Jake pushed Katie's bike, I took Badger in hand and Katie wrapped the gull in her prized Him top. As we walked home the bird, now with its beak free, started to show some spirit and peck at Katie.



Once home I used some side cutters to cut out two more hooks, including one from its wing. I also removed a large amount of line and a weight from around the birds feet.

We then tried to feed the gull some sardines, to help it regain it's strength, but it seemed to think the best thing to do with those was spray them over Katie's jeans for her trouble. It also crapped on her top for her.

Once we were happy the bird was fundamentally okay; wings worked and such like, we wrapped it up in a towel and took it back to the beach. Katie released it from the sea wall and was immensely gratified to see the bird fly off and rejoin its friends on the beach.

Bird Cuddle
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder.