The other day, while Bridey Hudson was driving to pick up some groceries near her home in Australia, something on the side of the road caught her eye.
“I noticed a distressed bird standing over a storm drain,” Hudson told The Dodo.
Although she was in the middle of a task, Hudson decided to stop anyway. And it’s a good thing she did.
Turns out, with her frantic calls, the bird was asking for help.
Hudson got out of her car and approached. Peeking deep down into the storm drain from above, Hudson struggled at first to spot anything of interest. But then she saw him, camouflaged in the debris below — it was a tiny baby bird who’d fallen inside.
The baby bird’s mom, a masked lapwing (known locally as “plovers”), wasn’t able to retrieve him on her own. Instead, she relied upon a kind stranger to help. Now understanding the situation, Hudson got to work.
As the baby bird’s worried mother looked on, Hudson opened up the storm drain grate to save him.
Here’s that moment on video:
After Hudson rescued the baby bird, she warmed his tiny body in her car to help him regain his strength. Then came the moment he and his mom had been waiting for.
“I put the baby down somewhere safe and walked away so they could be reunited,” Hudson said.
The look on Mom’s face said it all.
That day, Hudson could have decided to just continue on her way after spotting the bird in distress by the storm drain. But thanks to her willingness to stop and heed the bird’s cries for help, the feathered family was once again whole.