A wayward bird went for a “wild ride” this week after getting sucked down California’s famed “glory hole,” a large funnel-like spillway in Napa.
Tori Fowler posted a video on social media on Monday showing what appears to a cormorant minding its own business, floating on Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Unfortunately, the bird was drifting towards Monticello Dam’s famous circular spillway, which is known to locals as the “glory hole.”
The footage shows the bird being sucked down the funnel-like hole.
“Duck took a wild ride but did make it out on the other side!” Fowler said in the social media post.
Turns out the video was actually recorded by Fowler’s brother, Rick, who works as a water resources technician with the Solano County Water Agency. He explained to ABC10 News the cormorant somehow managed to survive the nearly 18-storey plunge, making it out the other side.
However, others were skeptical about the bird’s survival. Speaking with San Francisco’s SFGate, a spokesperson for Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that owns the spillway, said bird probably met a gruesome fate.
“From what I understand that water is going down really fast and when things come out the other side … I don’t want to get really graphic,” Brionna Ruff. “The chances do not look good for the ducky.”
According to ABC10 News, the cement drain is about 22 metres in diameter and drops nearly 135 metres before filtering out through the bottom of the shaft.