By the time Mike got close to the bird it was sitting right on the white line by the righthand lane of the highway. I almost couldn't bear to look. Mike stopped & waited for a stretch without any traffic in that lane. Luckily, traffic was light & he was able to quickly step into the lane & nudge the bird away from the white line.

It was amazing but the bird didn't react fearfully, as I expected. It was very calm & looked up at Mike as if it had been waiting for him. It pecked at him a little as he leaned over it & I cautioned him to protect his face. I set the carrier down in front of the bird & Mike gently nudged it in. Mike saw it had blood on the "elbow" of its wing.

I put a towel over the carrier to calm the bird, who was still pretty calm. My knowledge of water birds is pretty limited but I guessed it might be a grebe or a loon. It was bigger than a mallard & smaller than a canada goose. It had a long pointed beak, about 5", & a graceful head & neck. It's back had an area of black with small white dots on the feathers. It had webbed feet & was absolutely gorgeous!

Mike got on his cel phone & called information to try to find a wildlife rehabilitator in the area. After several attempts with no luck, we arrived at the reststop. I set up my humane traps for the feral cats & Mike went to a pay phone to check the yellow pages. Before long he struck paydirt: a veterinarian steered him towards a baby animal rescue group, who led him to a raptor rescue group who gave him the number for a bird rescue group in Delaware. Perfect, it was on the way home to Northern Va.

The raptor lady said it sounded like a loon & than loons sometimes become disoriented & mistake pavement for water. Since their legs are set far back on their body, more like fins, they can't stand on the ground. They can't take off from the ground & end up flopping around, bloodying their wings in the attempt. We were relieved to realize that was probably the case with this bird & that it probably wasn't hurt badly.