Ice fisherman wet a line, haul up a bird
Digital Reporter
Monday, March 9, 2015, 1:26 PM - This story out of Pennsylvania is considerably weirder than your typical "one that got away" tale.
The video above, uploaded to YouTube last week, shows your typical rural ice-fishing scene, right up until the fisherman hauls up a very unhappy bird rather than a fish.
The no-doubt bewildered fishermen immediately set about untangling it from the fishing line, and it jets off toward open water after release, rather than flying off.
National Geographic says the bird is a red-breasted merganser, a kind of fish-eating duck that can stay submerged for as long as five minutes.
This past winter hasn't helped, with frigid temperatures in the U.S. northeast limiting the amount of unfrozen waterways (an ornithologist interviewed by National Geographic says the duck's struggle to escape was likely because it was probably food stressed).
Good of the fishermen to let it go as soon as they could, although given how lousy the winter has been, we hope it survives.
SOURCE: National Geographic
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