I'm glad I stopped

At a part of a local county park that I frequent quite often yesterday morning. I hadn't planned to stop, but a few days earlier I had gotten some very nice images of pelicans from the area and I hoped there would be more. There weren't any pelicans, but I noticed this cormorant on the beach.

Normally Cormorants will take to the water if you get close to them, but this one didn't, it kept it's head tucked under it's wings and didn't move to the water when I got closer.

Then it lifted it's head, and I saw why it was not acting normal. Basically it had the hook in it's beak still attached to the metal leader and sinker.

I walked back to my Jeep to get my cell phone and hoped no one would come along and scare it into the water. Once I got back to the bird I placed a call to the supervisor of the park and he sent a ranger out to capture the Cormorant. Once it was safely secured they called a local shore bird rescue group to come and get the young cormorant.

This bird's life was saved, but many more are lost due to fishing hooks and tangled, discarded fishing line.

I'm going to ask the park supervisor if he would like to use the image to place on some of the information bulletin boards around the park to show fisherman what happens.

The rescue group will have the hook removed and give the bird some nutrients before releasing it and I hope that will put the shine back in this bird's lovely turquoise eyes.

D200, HH, kneeling, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 250, 80-400mm at 195mm. Only slightly cropped, compositionally I wanted the bird very large in the frame.

Thank you for looking, and for any comments you leave.