Wrestling egrets and other mishaps

[Swimmer]

The other morning about 4:30 a.m. I was fishing usual spot with my buddy, the ever present egret that is always perched to my right scoring mumichaugs, things were going well. The egret takes off and checks out what is happening a couple of poles away. It flew back, under cover of darkness a few minutes later.

Unfortunately for the egret as it flew by, my power pro got wrapped around its wing. The lure I was fishing was a goo goo repro, whose tail hook actually impailed the egrets right leg. I reeled it towards me as slowly as I can, the whole time the egret is making this god-awful wailing noise. When I finally get it close, I see just how F'd up things were. My jacket I could use to cover its eyes, something I have done many times with seaguls, is fifty feet away and up the embankment. I yell over to a guy, who is only about one pole away to see if he will come over and throw my jacket down to me. No answer. I yell over again, no answer. Glad I wasn't injured. I make a couple of grabs, holding my rod in one hand, for the birds wing. Bird tries to bite the first time and did in fact get me the second time. Just after the bite occurs, the bird is still wailing like its giving birth to a basketball size egg, the guy one pole away must have been getting annoyed at all the noise and yells over to me, "hey buddy, do what you have to do to get the lure back, just don't get bit". I replied its too late for that now. I couldn't put the rod down, because I didn't want the bird to swim out into the friekin canal with it in tow, so I just distracted the birds biting beek, with my left hand, squeezing my rod between my legs, so it wouldn't fall on the rocks, and grabbed the lure whose tail hook was slightly impaled in the egrets right leg. Once I got the hook out, the bird was still trying to show how ungrateful he was by continuously trying to sink its beek into my right hand again. I cut the line on both sides of the wing, releasing the tension on my rod, and the lure which dropped to the rocks. Then I unraveled the line which was wrapped around the egrets right wing. Bird then swims off about twnety feet away. The bird was shaken up, and didn't move for about an hour. I rinse off the wound with water, and went back to fishing. Everybody always says threads like this are worthless without pics so, here is the wound, the bird, and the reward.