Sunset West / Phoebe Rescue / Beautiful Reward

"Hope" is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul 
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops - at all
~ Emily Dickinson

What a day! It was almost a mini series! First off, I have three pictures: 1) the diner where I lunched with a friend (Sunset West restaurant, which also appears in one of my favorite train films, Unstoppable), 2) a photo of a man whose name I don't know and my husband, helping to rescue a bird caught in fishing twine along Spring Creek, and 3) my first butterfly photo of the year, a mourning cloak! Now, here is the story. . . .

I had met a friend for lunch at Sunset West restaurant in Pleasant Gap. She brought her new rescued beagle Emmy along, and we all got to watch a train pass by! Afterwards, my husband and I stopped for a short hike at Fisherman's Paradise. They had the gate open to the gravel road because they were conducting firearms training about a half-mile up.

As we rounded a bend in the creek, I saw something moving in a nearby tree. It looked like a little ball, spinning, spinning, spinning. But as I looked closer, it began to flop and flail. Oh no. My heart fell. It was a little bird caught in fishing twine hanging from a tree branch.

The bird was on the side of the tree facing the creek, hanging from one of the higher branches we could not reach. We had no way to climb the tree, and nothing to cut the twine with, so we decided to seek help.

My husband stayed with the bird. I walked up the road to just before the firearms training area, but they had a big yellow sign saying you were not permitted any further. Rats. I walked back to where my husband stood, waiting with the bird along the creek. It seemed like it took forever, as we waited for somebody to come by.

Finally, a black vehicle came out, and my husband flagged the guy down and told him the situation. The guy immediately got out of his truck and started climbing the tree! The first branch he climbed snapped under him, and he fell flat on his back in the mud by the creek! Oh no!

But then the man got back up and kept climbing and in short order, the man was right at the branch that needed to be cut. He asked my husband to get some red webbing out of his vehicle, and asked him to get a big stick, both of which he did.

The man looped the red webbing around the branch, tucked it in better with the stick, and then sawed off the branch the bird was hanging from with a knife. As the branch cracked and fell, my husband grabbed it before it could fall into the water and drown the poor bird.

(This is the phase in the rescue we were at for the photo that appears in the extras. The bird is dangling to the left from a branch, and my husband is in the blue vest. This was the last photo I have of our great bird rescue.)

As soon as I could, I reached out and GRABBED THAT BRANCH, and took the poor little bird into my hands. It was so small and so light in my hands, I could not believe it. But I HAD THE BIRD, I HAD IT in my hands!!! THE TARGET HAS BEEN ACQUIRED!!!

The instant I had it in my grasp, the bird (later identified as a phoebe) stopped struggling, and quieted right down. It was so tiny, so light in my hands. I held it gently but firmly. The man got down out of the tree and we tried to get that fishing line and hook out of that poor bird's beak, but it was wedged in there tight.

The man cut the line, and I pried the bird's beak open, trying to release the hook. No go. I felt the bird fading from me. It closed its eyes. Oh no! Emergency! Please, no, don't die in my hands! But then the bird opened its eyes again. Whew! Keep breathing bird, keep breathing!

The man said he needed a tiny knife or a set of nail clippers* to remove the hook, none of which we had on us. So he decided he would go back to the rest of the game wardens, or whatever they were, and get help. I gave the man the bird, and he got in his vehicle with the bird and left. There was nowhere to turn around, so he backed up his vehicle heading for the firearms training area, and disappeared out of sight.

We had a good feeling about the rescue itself, but I was still worried the bird was so exhausted it might die on him. We walked a bit more and guess what, in about 10 minutes, the guy in the truck came back out.

We flagged him down (again), and he explained that the hook had only been lodged in the corner of the bird's mouth, he did not think it was major damage that would mean long-term or serious harm to the bird, and guess what, when they were done removing the hook: THE BIRD FLEW AWAY!!!!!! That's right! It flew away!

Wow! What an adventure! (Sorry there are no pics of the bird in my hand but I was busy then, trying to help save its life!) Anglers, here's a reminder: please be a good steward of our wild creatures and carefully remove from the stream environment any fishing twine you bring with you.

As my husband and I walked back down the creek to our car, there was one more great moment in store. I saw a black form flitting about near the creek. It came up and sat right in front of me.

Mourning cloak! And you may see it in the extras. My first butterfly photo of the year! With dashes of pink on the edges of its wings (my friend Ellen did love pink, and so I was reminded of both her and my big sister). "My beautiful reward!" I said out loud, and took about a dozen shots!

I like to include a soundtrack song for each image, and this was quite a day! Here are my tunes:

For Sunset West restaurant, Suzanne Vega, with Tom's Diner.

For the amazing phoebe rescue in the extras, which we were so pleased and so blessed to have been part of, Lynyrd Skynyrd, with Free Bird.

And for the mourning cloak that was my sweet reward after that rescue, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, with My Beautiful Reward.

As I type up this adventure, it is the morning after. And I get to have the very happy thought that somewhere along Spring Creek this morning, a tiny little bird is sitting in the sun and singing its heart out. Fly free, little bird, fly free!!! *lights Bic, waves it in the air, sways, turns the music up*

*Note: I have now added to my camera bag a tiny knife and a set of nail clippers. NEXT time, I will have all the tools we need!