The Rescue

On an early morning this past summer, while walking next to Sycamore Pool, I came upon a trapped Acorn Woodpecker clinging to the pool’s edge to escape the water.  On seeing me, the poor bird, frightened, let go and tried to “swim” back across the pool.  If the bird were in the water much longer it would almost certainly die of hypothermia. I ran to get help.

This is Kyle, who works for the Parks Dept., checking out the poor bedraggled Acorn Woodpecker he’d just rescued.  Kyle, like the other Park workers, spends a lot of time making repairs and improvements to the Park’s infrastructure along with the never-ending chore of cleaning restrooms and picking up trash. I’m grateful for Kyle and the other workers who, day after day, work to keep the park in order and yet take time to save the life of a little bird.  The Parks Dept. works on a slim budget and it’s all that a small staff of only 7 workers can manage just to keep up with the demands put upon them. Personally, whatever the cost, I gladly pay taxes for the work they do.