While out doing her weekly monitoring at Brown Bridge Dam, Land Management Specialist, Robin Christensen spotted a bird struggling in a small creek. On closer inspection, she noticed the bird had a lure attached to both its webbed foot AND its bill. "The poor thing was hopping on one foot trying to get loose, but was obviously exhausted from its failed efforts" reported Robin. Luckily, Robin was able wiggle the beak loose from the three prong barbs and cut the other barbs to free the foot. The bird is believed to have been a juvenile gull and flew off with relatively little harm.

This is not the first time that Robin has had to spring into action to save a feathered friend. While living in Florida Robin noticed a heron with a plastic 6-pack bottle holder around its foot and neck and had to call wildlife biologist to save it. Yet, not all birds are as lucky. Happening upon any animal in these kind of predicaments is uncommon. This is why it is so important to make sure to pick up after yourself in order to minimize the impact humans have on other wildlife!

Click here to for more information how to do your part to prevent these kind of things from happening.

Tags: fishing lure, gull rescue, sea gull