Our whole rescue operation lasted about 10 minutes, from the time we waded out to the bird, until it flew away. We thought we had it once, after Don removed all the monofilament that had its wings bound, but had to briefly work on it again to remove monofilament that was also wrapped around the birds talons.

At no point did the bird make a fuss. When we finally had the bird free, it casually climbed up on a nearby stump, looked at us for a minute, preened briefly, and was gone.

Of course, there are no telling how many similar instances happen where no one happens to be around to see it.