Unsticking Birdo

Well, here's something I don't get to do every day. A little while ago, I saw down by the creek across the road a turkey vulture
hung up in something, struggling to get free. I grabbed my machete and folding
knife, went down there to check it out, and found that the bird's legs and one wing were tangled in fishing line, which was dangling from a tree. About then,
Dr.  Joe Keiper , who works at the
Virginia Museum of Natural History here in town, happened to be driving
by, so he came down and, with a forked stick, was able to keep the bird pinned
so I could cut the fishing line. The critter was pretty well exhausted, I
think, so it lay there calmly as we worked. Together, we managed to get all
the fishing line untangled and removed. Birdo flies off like nothing ever
happened.

Damned ugly fellow (the bird, not Joe), but I'm very glad things ended well
enough for it.