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Overcast Bird on a wire
Fire Department rescues cormorant hung in tree
An unusual call brought the Baldwin Fire Department’s Ladder 2 out to Silver Lake Park, off Fox Hurst Road, recently. The problem? A local cormorant swallowed a fish hook and the line attached to it and ended up hanging helpless from a tree.
The animal, visibly distressed, was suspended over Silver Lake by its long neck, so Lt. Sean Randazzo and firefighter Tom Ryley went out over the water in a Fire Department bucket and secured the large bird in a towel. After it was lowered to the ground, Jerry Brown, fire district supervisor, cut the line in which it was entangled and eventually loosed the hook from its throat. The bird was then retuned to Silver Lake in an unusual example of catch and release.
According to Brown, the firemen monitored the bird for some time before leaving the scene. “We set it free right back into the water,” Brown said. “It was no longer in distress when we left.”
