Fairfield Lake State Park has had some very exciting visitors, Black Scoters.
These birds are sub-arctic sea ducks and rarely seen in Texas, let alone at Fairfield Lake.
The park’s Assistant Office Manager Kate Sherman let me in on a rescue mission to save two of these beautiful birds.
She explained how a park visitor noticed, and informed park personal, that two scoters were struggling about 70 yards off the shore.
Park Police Officer Kyle Ware and Ranger Wendell Legalley immediately went out on the police boat.
It was discovered that discarded fishing line was tangled around the birds.
Black Scoters are strong swimmers, and as they foraged for food, they managed to wrap the line around themselves from bill to toe.
Sherman said, “Our guys were able to safely capture the exhausted birds and cut them free of the line.”
Without help, these birds would probably have not been freed of the line, but thanks to the help of Ware and Legalley they were safely released back to the wild.
