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Project Noah Nature School
Anhinga anhinga
This bird was spotted with some blue plastic material wrapped around his bill near the base. Two men from the nearby golf clubhouse were walking around the lagoon with pool nets (for skimming leaves) attempting to get close enough to the bird in order to catch him and free him from the plastic. After watching them for 20min (at least) I decided to help (the two men had rejected my inital offer for assistance).
The bird was getting tired and was starting to get out of the water more frequently, but would run back in if they got too close. Finally, the bird ran up the bank near where my brother and I were standing. I waited until he (the bird) was far enough from the water that I might be able to herd him away from it. I took off my jacket and held it out to try to block the bird from reentering the water.
The two men made their way around to where we were from the other side of the bird. Together, we managed to pin him under one of the nets and grab him to remove the plastic from his bill. We released him afterwards and he swam to the opposite side of the lagoon, climbed out and began to dry off (see photo 6). Fortunately, for the Anhinga, they can't fly when they are all wet, otherwise we might not have been able to help him.
Spotted on Nov 22, 2012
Submitted on Jan 28, 2013
1 Comment
Wonderful story. Glad you and other were there to be this Anhinga's hero.