Ungrateful egret bites the hand that freed it

After turning the tide for a doomed egret, Alberta and B.J. Sheroski found themselves host to an ungrateful house guest.

It all started Tuesday, when the egret found itself with one orange foot trapped in the vice-like grip of a clam, and the afternoon tide closing in on a marsh in Mariner's Cove. The juvenile snowy egret thrashed its wings furiously in a futile struggle to free itself from certain drowning.

Alberta Sheroski, lounging with her friend on a docked boat overlooking the marsh, watched the bird for 15 minutes, at first unsure if it was feeding, resting or stuck in the mud.

But as the tide rose and water began to submerge the bird -- only its head and neck remained above the water -- she couldn't stand to watch anymore.

Sheroski made a frantic call to her husband, B.J., a yacht captain who was working just a few minutes away from their marsh-side condominium.

He rushed home, borrowed his neighbor's boat, paddled out about 20 yards and pulled the bird from the water.

"Just in time," Alberta said. "By the time B.J. got to him, all you could see was his little head."

When he pulled the shaking, nearly lifeless bird from of the marsh, it was clear what was holding it down: A large clam had closed on the bird's foot, and it didn't let go until B.J. pried it off with a knife.

"It felt like there was a huge anchor on him," he said. "That clam was as big as my hand, and this little egret was just a baby. It was the biggest clam I've ever seen."

The clam had broken off one of the bird's toes, and the bird was in obvious pain, he said.

While B.J. called a local veterinarian, his wife wrapped a towel around the waterlogged bird and brought it into the house to warm up. Using a hair dryer and a few warm towels, the Sheroskis took turns holding the exhausted egret's wings apart and drying it off in the couple's master bedroom -- to keep it away from their cats.

"He just lay there and let us do it," Alberta said. "We tried to set him up a little bit, but he was so tired he couldn't stand on his feet."

When they were finished, the bird didn't stop shaking. They left the room, concerned that the egret was flustered by being handled by humans.

Upon their return a couple of hours later, the bird jumped to its feet and started flapping around the bedroom -- from the floor to the bed to the dresser to the window sill.

"That's when we knew he wanted out of there," Alberta said. "Plus, he pooped on the floor."

Her husband cornered the egret and snatched it up in his arms. On his trip down the stairs, the bird pecked his finger.

"B.J. told him, 'That's what I get for saving your bloody life?'" Alberta said. "Then (the egret) turned around and pecked him right in the nose. We laughed pretty hard at that."

B.J. didn't blame the bird.

"Well, he was scared to death. When he got my nose, I thought, 'OK, he's going to be all right.'<2009>"

The Sheroskis placed the egret out on their deck overlooking the marsh, and it flew only a few short feet to a bush nearby. The next Alberta approached the bird, and it flew away across the marsh.

"It was such an amazing thing," she said. "I was so excited that he actually came out of it. I frankly didn't think he had a chance. I thought he was dead."