Entangled Great Blue Heron Practically Asks For Assistance

It was a most unusual rescue.

Analia Cassina’s son left his fishing poles by the edge of the water at the pond behind their property on Lakewood Drive last Tuesday afternoon… but when he returned a few hours later, the poles were gone.

He looked around for a while and eventually noticed that there, in the center of the pond, standing on a floating fountain (the type used to aerate water bodies) was a large great blue heron, helplessly tangled in the line of one of his poles.

Apparently the bird had somehow “flown through” the poles, probably while it was near shore, and become tangled in the lines.

With one pole still “attached” and the line wrapped around its legs and wings (the pole was in the water, sticking up out of the muck, right next to the bird), the poor bird was unable to go anywhere – at least, not without a major struggle.

Cassina did the right thing and called Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm, who came right over.

“When I got there, I immediately could tell that there was no way I could get out to where the bird was,” Halm told NewCanaanite.

So, Cassina went to neighbor’s house to try to get a kayak.

While Cassina was over at the neighbor’s house, however, Halm tried calling to the heron.

“I said, ‘It’s OK, we’re here to help,’ in that voice you use when you’re talking to wildlife, you know?” Halm recalled.

What happened next was pretty amazing: “Suddenly the bird just came right to me,” Halm said. “It sort of flopped about on its way over… but it made it…”

It was as if the bird somehow knew that Halm was there to help.

With the bird now in reach, Halm was able to get a sheet over its head, which is an effective way of calming aquatic birds such as geese, ducks and herons.

“Once the sheet is over their head, they basically won’t move,” she said.

With the bird now calm, Halm was able to carefully cut away the fishing line, freeing the bird’s wings and legs.

Cassina said it was fortunate that the hook that was at the end of the line didn’t get embedded into the heron.

But she was still a little worried because the hook was not immediately found.

“I was very worried about that,” she said. “Because if the hook had gotten into it then it could’ve gotten an infection.”

Cassina said she found the hook on the ground near where the pole was a few days later.

“It looked like it must have just broken off,” she said.

Lucky bird.