Dear Tweeters,

Like Susan, I have also found birds in distress because they got tangled in thread or fishing line. A few years ago a female mallard was dangling by her wing 20 feet over the pond. Her wing was tangled in fishing line and she was frantically struggling to get free. I managed to cut her down with a long pruning pole, but unfortunately I was not able to save her.

In the second incident, I found a young Red-winged Blackbird hanging upside down in my crabapple tree. There was red thread tangled around his legs and around the tree branch. I cut him down but was unable to remove the thread because it was so tightly knotted and tangled. It was late Sunday afternoon, so I took him to the local animal emergency clinic. They successfully removed the thread and gave him back to me to release in the yard. They did not charge me anything for helping the bird. They must have been having a really bad day as they thanked me for bringing in the bird and said that being able to save him was the best thing that happened to them all day.

If you see discarded thread, fishing line, netting material, plastic pop/beer can rings, or other harmful materials, cut it down, pick it up and dispose of it. These materials are indiscriminate killers of birds and other wildlife. The life you save may be the rare bird you are looking for.

Diane Weinstein
Issaquah

From: Susan Anderegg
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 5:49 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Gull in distress


Hi Tweeties

yesterday afternoon I was walking through the bus yard when a coworker approached and pointed out a gull sitting on the ground near the fuel pumps. She was worried that it was ill as she was able to approach it quite closely and it wouldn't fly away. We walked toward the poor creature, it flapped its wings and rolled onto its side. I saw something red between its feet and my first thought was it was injured and its insides were falling out. I decided to take a better look, took my coat off and threw it over the bird, picked it up and found its legs were "handcuffed" together by some red thread which was also wrapped several times around both legs just above its feet. We took it inside, got some scissors and removed the thread. Luckily the skin on its legs wasn't cut. We put it back outside and still it sat on the ground. It flapped and tried to fly but couldn't lift off the ground. I had to leave for my afternoon run but decided if it was still there when I got back I'd give it some food and water. While I was gone another coworker put it in a box and took it to a local vet who examined it, sprayed it for "bird fleas" and was planning on stabilizing it, feed it and send it off for rehab to Sarvey. It turned out to be an adult Mew gull.

Good luck little gull! And stay away from thread, fishing line, fish hooks, all that stuff.

It was just a short piece of thread but it almost killed an innocent bird that got tangled up in it!

susan anderegg at hotmail dot com





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