While giving a powerboat level 2 course a sport fisher came alongside the teaching vessel and shouted something of a bird in need of help towards us. We went to have a look and found a Caspian gull in distress. It was floating, head down, in the water and was covered in fishing line and hooks.
After executing a BOB (bird over board) maneuver we took the bird on board and figured what had happened. The poor bird had tried to catch a fish and ended up with one hook in his upper beak, one in his tongue, one in his lower beak, at least one hook in his neck and another one in his right legged floating skin.
The "fish" it had caught turned out to be a nasty looking blinker, shaped like a small fish having lots of nasty hooks all over the the place.
We brought the heavily injured bird on shore and took out most of the hooks by cutting them through and pushing the left overs forward. We weren't certain whether we had taken out all the hooks and what to do with the bird. So next step for the bird was a visit at the local vet.
Being asked at the front desk of the vet what the birds name would be I answered:"Seagull?".
"Ah, Cegle, I see", was the reply.
Cegle spent 4 days at the vet, experienced an X-ray, had taken out another hook off his neck area, was given antibiotics and ate lots of cat food, all while being very grumpy, trying to hack into as many fingers with his beak as possible.
Three days ago I picked up the bird at the vet using our cat cage and brought it back to Ras Al Hamra club, where I released it.
As one can see his tale feather looked a bit worn from being hold in a cage for a couple of days and at his neck he is missing some feathers where he had a little surgery.
His first flights in freedom again have been a bit unstable therefor he went for a bath first.
While obviously enjoying the intensive salty bath already some mates turned up. After the bath the bird spent another hour on the beach before it took finally off.
After executing a BOB (bird over board) maneuver we took the bird on board and figured what had happened. The poor bird had tried to catch a fish and ended up with one hook in his upper beak, one in his tongue, one in his lower beak, at least one hook in his neck and another one in his right legged floating skin.
The "fish" it had caught turned out to be a nasty looking blinker, shaped like a small fish having lots of nasty hooks all over the the place.
We brought the heavily injured bird on shore and took out most of the hooks by cutting them through and pushing the left overs forward. We weren't certain whether we had taken out all the hooks and what to do with the bird. So next step for the bird was a visit at the local vet.
Being asked at the front desk of the vet what the birds name would be I answered:"Seagull?".
"Ah, Cegle, I see", was the reply.
Cegle spent 4 days at the vet, experienced an X-ray, had taken out another hook off his neck area, was given antibiotics and ate lots of cat food, all while being very grumpy, trying to hack into as many fingers with his beak as possible.
Three days ago I picked up the bird at the vet using our cat cage and brought it back to Ras Al Hamra club, where I released it.
As one can see his tale feather looked a bit worn from being hold in a cage for a couple of days and at his neck he is missing some feathers where he had a little surgery.
His first flights in freedom again have been a bit unstable therefor he went for a bath first.
While obviously enjoying the intensive salty bath already some mates turned up. After the bath the bird spent another hour on the beach before it took finally off.
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