Blue Heron Rescue

Our home is surrounded by a pond/woods/wetlands and we enjoy the most beautiful wildlife. We are so lucky to see sand hill cranes that come back every spring and raise their babies as well as Blue Heron, groundhogs, turkeys, raccoons, squirrel, deer, muskrat, etc... Everyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a hunter and anything living on my property lives. We treasure the animals that surround us. This past Saturday, Blaine and I were coming home from church and driving into our driveway. Blaine spotted a crane and of course I was trying to point it out to the girls. Though I didn't get a good look-it seemed like there was a stick or possibly an arrow stuck in the bird-but than it vanished in the tall grass. Sunday, as I was walking the girls, we saw the Heron again, but this time, I felt sick to my stomach as I was sure it had an arrow through it. I made some calls, but wasn't sure what to do. We decided if we saw it again, we would take action. Monday, we didn't see it, and worried it had died. This morning as Blaine was leaving work, the Heron was close to our driveway and Blaine got a good look at the arrow. Our good friend Jen, who is an animal rescuer to the core, gave us a contact in Howell, a nature conservatory, who was able to take the bird. So, this evening, the crocodile hunter himself-Blaine-caught the bird and hauled it in a cage to Howell. The bird didn't put up much of a fight and was pretty frightened. Blaine snipped the arrow on both sides so the bird wouldn't receive more injuries on the trip to Howell. I wasn't able to shoot picture of the bird before the arrow was cut-but they are still shocking images. I hope someone wasn't using this beautiful bird as target practice-it makes me more than seething mad if that was the case. The conservatory said they will keep us posted on the bird's progress as tonight, they were possibly transferring it to a larger facility for possible surgery.