Hilton Head woman comes to the rescue after she spots injured seagull. What happened next
Thanksgiving usually strikes fear into millions of soon-to-be-served birds across the U.S., but thanks to a timely rescue from Hilton Head residents, at least one has something to be grateful for.
Island resident Toni Moslemi visited Fish Haul Beach on Nov. 18 and decided to walk from the north side to the south end. When she doubled back later that afternoon, she saw what she thought was a seagull fishing for prey near the shore.
“I just saw this bird floating on the water. I’d never seen one floating like that, with its arms stretched out across the water,” Moslemi said. “He kept dipping his head in the water, so I thought, ‘Oh, maybe he’s fishing for his dinner.’”
Moslemi took a video of the bird but began to suspect something was wrong when she noticed it was moving only its head and neck above the water before going limp again.
Since she has experience rescuing smaller birds — she once rescued and cared for seven parrots and still has birds of her own at home — Moslemi said she figured she’d be able to help the gull.
“I learned so much about what can make a bird sick from my experience with the parrots, so I imagine it’s the same with the gulls,” Moslemi said. “Maybe they’re a little tougher, but the simplest thing as burning a candle or cleaning your oven can kill a parrot.”
Moslemi decided to quickly ask nearby beachgoers if they had a pocket knife before wading out to the bird, expecting to find it tangled in a net or wire. When she reached the gull, she was surprised to see it was floating freely but extremely weak. It wasn’t able to support its head or legs when she lifted it from the water.
When she was drying the bird, Moslemi originally thought it may have been poisoned by something it ate or sick with bird flu. Residents on Daufuskie Island recently lost 170 community farm birds to the virus, and birds in North Carolina have recently spread the disease near Charlotte and Durham.
Due to the risk to her own pets, Moslemi said she couldn’t bring the bird home to care for. She drove it to a nearby pet hospital and the staff there gave her a list of numbers for places that could care for the gull.
Eventually Moslemi and her daughters drove the bird to Port Royal Veterinary Hospital the same day, where the staff said it has since made a full recovery. The bird was released Friday morning after recovering throughout the week, a staff member confirmed.
The hospital said the bird didn’t have bird flu and believed it may have been hurt in a dog attack on the beach before Moslemi discovered it at high tide.
Moslemi hadn’t known what became of the bird after dropping it off and said she was grateful to hear of its recovery and shocked by the overwhelming support she received after posting the rescue to Facebook.
“I was kind of amazed by the response. I didn’t expect that. My reason for posting was to get as many choices (for help) as quickly as possible,” Moslemi said. “I honestly did not expect people from everywhere to connect to this one little bird the way they did.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2022 at 8:00 AM.
