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Several years ago the neighbor kids in the home behind and adjoining my back yard would occasionally fly kites from their own yard. Given the relatively small size of their back yard and the many mature and very large trees in the neighborhood it was a kite-disaster waiting to happen. I had no inkling at the time that it would also be a disaster for a bird.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, the kite string snagged between two large trees – one tree in an adjoining neighbors yard and another tree on the other side of my yard. The kids were able to retrieve the kite but it left a very long section of the string stretched tight between the two trees directly above the fence at the back of my yard and about 35′ above the ground. The string was way out of my reach so I mostly ignored it. I never even considered the possibility that it might be a danger to birds.<\/p>\n
I should have.<\/p>\n
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Very early one May morning as I was about to leave on a bird photography trip I turned the back yard lights on and walked outside to check the progress of my vegetable garden, only to hear a fluttering sound coming from above me in the pre-dawn darkness. Within a few minutes there was enough light that I could (barely) tell it was an American Robin snagged in the kite string. It was still struggling and it was a sight and sound to break one’s heart.<\/p>\n At first I couldn’t figure out how to rescue the bird. I used my lens to try to see how seriously it was entangled and even though it was still very dark (much darker than it appears in this photo, I’ve increased exposure during processing) I could see well enough through my lens to determine that the robin was almost certainly doomed unless I did something.<\/p>\n I found my own piece of string and a heavy metal washer in my garage so I tied the washer to the end of my string and after several attempts was able to throw the washer over the kite string. The kite string was very long (it stretched roughly 90′ across the entire length of the boundary of our back yards) so as I pulled on my own string the kite string stretched considerably more before it broke.<\/p>\n When it did finally break the robin was flung high into the larger tree in my other neighbors back yard. Even though by now it was fairly light I couldn’t see or hear the robin through all the leaves so I figured the bird had already flown off and would be fine so I left on my photography trip.<\/p>\n I was wrong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"American](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/american-robin-6858-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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