Edmonton, ON— Firefighters were called to fetch a snowy owl left tangled and teetering on thin ice near open water Tuesday after attempts to capture the bird went awry. Rescuers from the Strathcona Raptor Shelter were trying to snag the injured owl with a net when it took off, dragging the net and poles behind. The poles fell into open water, and the owl was stranded. Fears of thin ice kept the rescuers from running out to help. Fire crews arrived quickly, donned survival suits and pulled a zodiac across the ice. They grabbed the bird by the talons and carried it to shore inside the net. “I didn’t want to take the chance, but you can’t just leave her and walk away,” said Hardy Pletz, a hobbyist licensed to trap birds of prey. “Never had the fire department out before….” (April 8, 2009) —Photo: Supplied, Edmonton Journal

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Staff at Bellerbys College in Broad Street called the RSPCA after the students from Brazil and Colombia alerted them to the pigeon’s plight. But RSPCA officer Andy Eddy was unable to reach the bird, which was stuck more than 50ft up, so called in the fire brigade. Two hours later, firefighters reached the bird behind Boswell House and put it in a box before handing it to Mr Eddy, an animal welfare officer with the RSPCA. The pigeon was taken to St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital at Haddenham, near Thame. Mr Eddy, pictured right with the rescued bird, added: “They will give him some tender loving care until he is fit enough to be released.” Fire service incident commander Edward Murphy said seven firefighters from Oxford and Kidlington took part in the rescue. (May 1, 2009) —Photo: credit not given in article

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Calls from concerned workers at an office park brought West Bridgewater firefighters to a nearly frozen pond today, where an injured goose was frozen in the ice. When approached by Firefighter David Niklason wearing a cold water rescue suit, the bird scrambled away, eventually heading for the nearby woods. Fire Chief Leonard Hunt said the department attempted the rescue to keep well-meaning good Samaritans off the ice. “We look at it from the point of view of, if we don’t go do it, then somebody, a civilian, will try to do it. And we’ll end up with a civilian rescue,” said Hunt. “We tell people all the time if you see something like that, call us.” (Dec 23, 2008) —Photo: George Rizer/Globe Staff

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The bird was tangled in a fishing line hanging over a river. The crew first tried unhooking the bird with a long pole. When that didn’t work they got in a raft to try a river rescue. Finally one firefighter cut the gull free but it dropped into the water. A crowd of onlookers gasped as the exhausted bird floated away. It was then plucked to safety at the River Welland in Stamford, Lincs, and taken to a sanctuary. (Feb 2007) —Photo credit not given in article

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Pittsburgh firefighters and local residents flocked together to rescue more than two dozen exotic birds from a burning house this morning on the North Side. … Pittsburgh Animal Control Officer Paul Cord tries to keep “Jasper,” a cockatoo, warm after removing him from a home on Perrysville Avenue that caught fire. (Jan 3, 2008) —Photo: Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

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