Answering a morning phone call

triggered a chain of events for Marie Schlosser that still has her marveling

at the magnitude of human generosity.

Late last month, Schlosser

was leaving her home overlooking Lake Peachtree for a day crowded with

appointments when the telephone rang. She dashed back in to pick up and,

from her bedroom window, suddenly caught sight of what appeared to be

a great blue heron dangling helplessly from a tree about 60 feet in midair.

"I hung up the phone and

ran outside to tell my husband, Rick, who was raking leaves," Schlosser

said. "The bird was flying upside down with one wing in small circles."

The Schlossers summoned help from their neighbors Hans and Carolyn Wurche,

Ed Holland and a trio of walkers that, as luck would have it, included

Jacque Solsvig, a board member of the Second Chance Wildlife Rehabilitation

Center in Grantville.

According to Schlosser, the

group determined that the bird was entangled in something that they later

discovered to be an abandoned kite string. "The string was about

60 feet above ground between two trees, and the bird was at least 50 feet

from the nearest tree," she said.

The trees were in a densely

wooded and marshy area near the lake, making it impossible for a fire

truck, ladders or any type of equipment to reach the struggling bird,

Schlosser explained. It was also becoming clear to the group that the

bird was growing weary and could not free itself. A team from the Fayette

County Animal Shelter, headed by its director, Bill Newman, was summoned

to the scene in the event the bird did break loose, but that would not

happen.

The Schlossers contacted David

Meadows of White-Meadows Tree Service, who was working nearby at Planterra

Ridge. He arrived with employee Luke Muller, a tree-climbing expert who

was able to scale the tree and, after some tedious searching for the string

and a trip up the second tree, was able to release the bird and lower

it into a waiting blanket.

"It took almost an hour

to locate the end of the string," Schlosser said. The entire process

took about four hours, she estimated, from the time she first spotted

the trapped heron.

Once the bird was on the ground,

animal control transported the bird to the Animal Medical Clinic in Peachtree

City, where it was examined by Dr. Erica Runkle, recognized as a bird

specialist. Solsvig arranged for the bird to be cared for at Second Chance.

"This was their fist great

blue heron," Schlosser said. "He was housed in their flight

pen and supplied with fresh fish by Mack McCollum, owner of a local feed

store, who fished for the heron every day. Solsvig picked up the fish

and cared for the bird, changing its water and monitoring its recovery,"

Schlosser continued.

Its stay at Second Chance was

expected to be about two months, but in just 10 days, Schlosser said,

she was notified that the heron was fit to fly and was on its way back

to Lake Peachtree for release.

The original rescue team reassembled

for the bird's homecoming and watched as it took off, sailing easily over

the dock and trees. "He really did get a second chance," Schlosser

concluded.