‘Surreal’ response to swan rescue video
Even a day spent kayaking along the Grand River demonstrated Fred Bowering’s compassion for wildlife.
For most of the video, posted on Facebook on Saturday, the St. Catharines resident allows a tiny frog to willingly sit on the back of his hand, giving it a chance to warm up before he gently returns it to the riverbank.
Sunday, he posted a video of his effort to rescue a squirrel he found lying stunned at the base of tree, after — he suspects — it had been shocked by nearby powerlines.
But it was a video he posted a few days earlier draw national attention to the normally quiet man.
During a family outing with his mother Judy Szcoly and niece Hawklene Naomi Lawton, on the shore of Martindale Pond on Wednesday, Bowering jumped into the water to rescue a swan with a fishhook embedded in the bird’s neck.
The swan had apparently swallowed the sinker at the other end of the fishing line, and it prevented the bird from holding her head up straight.
Bowering briefly wrestles with the bird in the video, as he pulls it to shore. It appears to calm down as he frees it from the hook and sinker.
He shouts “Woo hoo!” as the bird swims away with a newfound lease on life.
Bowering said “it felt really good” knowing he’d likely saved the swan’s life, and felt even better to see the smiling faces of his neice and mother.
But he wasn’t counting on the attention his good deed drew, after his niece posted a video of the rescue on Facebook.
That video was soon featured on CBC, The Weather Network and other national media.
“It’s kind of surreal. I didn’t expect it,” he said, adding people have recognized him in the days since the media attention.
“I’ve had people come up and say, ‘Oh, the swan. That’s so awesome.’”
Bowering said he’s just thankful he was able to free the bird, “and I’m very thankful that I made my mother’s visit so memorable.”
Bowering’s compassion isn’t only reserved for wildlife.
He has been visiting St. Catharines parks and public spaces almost daily for years, picking up carelessly discarded hypodermic needles to ensure they won’t end up embedded in the skin of a passing child or animal.
A video he posted on Facebook, showing him picking up dozens of needles left behind beside St. Catharines Public Library, had been viewed more than 152,000 times as of Monday morning.
He said he knew the work he does, cleaning syringes would attract attention, would attract attention. But he never expected that many people would tune in.
And he now regrets having posted it.
He said it’s “upsetting” that people are carelessly discarding needles, but he didn’t mean it as a judgment of people who are addicted to opioids.
“I feel for all of them, because they all have a story and I hear a lot of their stories,” said Bowering, a recovering addict.
Bowering has been free from drugs for more than four years, after spenging about 18 years using opioids.
“Thankfully I’ve been successful at facing it, and didn’t expect all of this to get so much attention. I don’t do it for attention. I don’t do it for money. I just do it because I see it’s an issue,” he said.
“I’m just the same as anybody downtown.”