P.E.I. man rescues bird 'frozen to the ground' after Sunday's storm

A resident of P.E.I. helped free a bird left "completely frozen to the ground" after a bout of freezing rain and snow hit the Island on Sunday.

Sandy Doucette was driving near his house in Meadowbank when he spotted a flock of birds flap their wings and zip off into the sky — except for one lonely little flyer.

"I thought that was really weird because, you know, birds don't normally stay on the road when you drive by," he said.

"I just pulled over and kind of went out to see what was the issue with this bird and it was completely frozen to the ground."

Doucette said there was about an inch of so of ice and snow encasing the bird's feet. He thought about going home to fetch water or something to help free it, but decided against that in case a plow or predator came by.

"It even looked like it was being picked by crows or something on its back. You can see in the video there's some ruffled feathers there," he said.

'This is kind of neat'

He stayed, and with one hand in the snow digging the bird out and another on a cellphone recording it all, he eventually managed to free the bird.

He later posted the whole encounter on YouTube and Facebook.

"I don't really film or post too many things on social media, but I just thought, 'This is kind of neat,'" he said. "This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, for me anyway."

The video is only around a minute long, but he was happy he stopped to help the bird and had the video to show Islanders that it flew off safely.

"It didn't cost me anything and it was pretty easy to do," he said.

"It's kind of nice to contribute to something in the world where so many bad things are happening."

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