Updated
A bird that was sucked into a massive “glory hole” in a Californian reservoir survived a turbulent 75-metre drop and flew away unharmed after being shot out “like a bullet”.
Key points:
- Lake Berryessa can hold 2 million megalitres of water before it overflows down the “glory hole”
- The Morning Glory Spillway is one of the largest drains of its kind in the world
- A swimmer was pulled down the spillway and died in 1997
Water began flowing into Lake Berryessa’s Morning Glory Spillway, which is known by locals more colourfully as the “glory hole”, following recent heavy rains.
In a video posted online, a cormorant can be seen drifting for a few seconds along the water as it is pulled toward the 22-metre-wide, 75-metre-deep drain.
It then tumbles over the edge and into the water funnel, in what the spillway’s owner’s spokeswoman Brionna Ruff presumed was a fatal plunge.
“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,” she told local website SFGate.
“The chances do not look good.”
‘It shot out of there like a bullet’
But despite the odds, Lake Berryessa water resources manager Rick Fowler, the man who took the video, is adamant the bird came out alive — and rapidly.
“Thwack, it shot out of there like a bullet,” he told The Guardian.
“It looked like a rag doll, like it was dead.”
He said after seeing the bird drop into the drain he ran to check the creek below the dam wall to see if it had made it out alive.
He said moments after being ejected it shook off the water and flew away.
Video of the bird’s plunge was later posted to social media by Mr Fowler’s cousin Tori Junes Fowler.
“[The bird] took a wild ride but did make it out on the other side!” Ms Fowler posted.
That was backed up by a post on the Lake Berryessa News Facebook post that said: “Several people posted below that they saw the bird come out alive on the other side. It’s possible”.
The glory hole can gulp lake water at a rate of about 1,360 cubic metres per second.
Water then drops down about 75 metres then travels horizontally for more than 600 metres before draining into the creek.
The ‘glory hole’: Whirlpool, inverted fountain or plughole?
The Morning Glory Spillway is one of the largest drains of this kind in the world. It can hold 2 million megalitres before hitting capacity, which is when the “glory hole” begins to channel excess water.
It has been described as looking like a giant whirlpool or a beautiful inverted fountain, but also resembles a really big plughole.
The spillway is cordoned off to prevent swimmers and boat users from coming too close to it, however a woman was killed after she disappeared into it in 1997.
Emily Shwalek, 41, had been seen swimming toward the spillway one Sunday evening and had gripped the edge of the hole for about 20 minutes before she and then dropped out of sight.
Her body was found about three hours later.
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