Saving Guillemots

Walking tonight to the lighthouse, luckily came across these poor Guillemots. Both hooked to the same piece of fishing line - the adult had a hook in its breast and the younger one had two hooks imbedded in it - one in its breast and the other in its wing. More unfortunately the line had also become wrapped around its right wing, cutting into it, by several cms. Approaching cautiously, making comforting sounds, we managed to catch them both- I like to think they knew we were going to help them - they didn’t try to peck us. My husband managed to remove the hook gently from the adult bird and we let it go but it stayed with us while I held the younger bird and my husband worked on removing the fish hooks. This was more difficult as the line was tangled around its wing and the poor little thing was struggling. After some minutes thankfully the hooks and line were removed. After a while we place the birds in the water - the adult swam away quickly. The younger bird was caught on the waves - it bobbed about preening itself and flapping its wings. I rang the Scottish SPCA- they advised us to leave the seabird there - apparently they are very anxious birds - they said they would visit the beach in the morning. Apparently they had had several calls about guillemots in trouble in the area. They were at three dead on the beach. It was almost dark as we left - the little guillemot still bobbing about not far from the beach. Apparently they spend most of their life at sea. I hope this story has a happy ending. And thank goodness the fish hooks were almost barbless.

Done