A woman was forced to jump into an algae-filled Cardiff pond to rescue a drowning baby bird after the water levels got so low. Grace Scott, 20, said she thinks the baby moorhen would have died within hours if she hadn't jumped into the pond when she did.
Pond Dries Up in Scorching Heat
Due to the fact the pond in Thompson's Park in Canton doesn't fill up naturally, the council has to turn a tap on and refill the pond in order to maintain the appropriate water level. Due to the persistent warm weather and a series of scorching heatwaves, the past few weeks have seen the water get lower than ever. The tap has since been turned on, but Grace believes the levels should never have got so low in the first place.
The pond is a small wildlife hotspot with birds, ducks, moorhens, and herons all being regularly spotted by locals. Grace said there was even a turtle residing in the park at one point.
Rescue Mission
Grace, who works as a receptionist, is a regular visitor to the park and takes her dog there two or three times a day. Over the past couple of weeks, she had noticed the pond had become completely dry, but the situation reached a climax on the evening of July 12. Grace said: 'I was walking my dog up there after I finished work on Sunday evening and I saw these baby moorhens. They've been there for quite a while and the mum has just had new ones. The baby was stuck in the mud and the mum was nowhere to be seen. This bird was stuck in this thick algae-like mud where they haven't turned the water on.'
'I wasn't leaving him there so I risked my own health and safety because I couldn't have slept if I left him there. I was up to my knees in mud and I pulled him out and the poor thing was covered from head to toe in thick mud and algae, in a really bad way.'
Aftercare and Council Response
Grace rescued the small bird and instinctively took it home to look after it. She bathed him, then took water from her own pond, poured it into a bucket, put him in a box in her downstairs bathroom, and fed him mealworms. On Wednesday morning, she was happy the water had returned enough that she could return it to its natural habitat. 'He fully perked up and is all healthy now,' Grace added. 'I can guarantee that if I'd left it there for even an hour he would've been dead bless him. He was head to toe in thick mud – the only thing pointing out was his little beak.'
The tap has now been turned back on, but Grace said it shouldn't happen in the first place – especially when there are baby birds there. She said she contacted the council as soon as the water started going down. Cardiff Council has confirmed that the water levels have now been addressed and the pond is now full of water for the birds and wildlife to enjoy. A spokesman said: 'The water levels did reduce due to the prolonged hot weather. The pond has to be manually filled up, which has now been completed by council staff.'
