Beddington Farm - "Calling Beddington Bird Rescue - Come in Please!!"

Today started the same as any other! David Cambell and I arrived at the same time had a quick scan of the lakes and then set up our stall in the hide for a potentially rain filled day! Frank had gone for a walk and found a drake Garganey on the South Lake which caused a mini twitch for the new members Magnus and Christian.

In the mean time a Herring Gull was spotted in some distress on the main island. The bird had been hooked by a fishing lure and the fishing wire had become entangled around one of the bushes on the island leaving the bird pinned head and neck down to the ground!

Following a distress call from other gulls the group members leapt into action phone calls were made and with the addition of Tomas the boat was fully inflated and a shovel was used as an oar to steer the rescue mission over to the island.

The crew of two set off Tomas at the shovel and David Campbell as C licence bird handler. Fortunately the seas were calm with a slight W wind to assist with a perfect landing!

The gull was promptly freed from its torment and placed to recover whist the remainder of the line was cleared preventing any further probability of casualties. Around five minutes later the gull was washing up and flapping its wings waving farewell to its liberators!

Word had got out amongst the local Hirundines and they lined the route welcoming the crew back to shore! The landing however was not as smooth was it DB?!

On examination of the lure a further sad note to the story was revealed. Another bird (likely to be a gull) had swallowed the lure and line and had perished leaving a tangled mess around some of its remains! The Herring gull had obviously seen the same attraction in the imitation fish and hooked itself in the bill and become entangled!!

There is no permitted public access at Beddington Farm but there are certainly no Pike let alone numbers of fish for it to feed on! If this tackle had made it onto the landfill then I can only appeal to anglers to dismantle hooks and line before throwing items in the bin!! Grrr!

The drake Garganey remained on the south lake until at least lunch time and was also twitched by non key holding birders.