Kookaburras may eat frogs, but in this case it was Frog that saved a kookaburra’s life.
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After a few minutes with Rob Little, who is known as “Frog”, you can tell he is a born storyteller. And he started off this story by saying “the rarest coincidence ever happened to me”.
“I’ve been fishing out of Tathra for 38 years,” he said.
“I’ve had some wonderful things, some strange things happen, like everyone in that time.”
About 10 weeks ago, he and his friend Leon Jones were fishing in the ocean off Bournda.
I’ve had some wonderful things, some strange things happen, like everyone in that time.
- Rob "Frog" Little
The wind was coming off Wallagoot, and after they had been fishing for a while Mr Jones looked at Mr Little and told him to stay very still.
He pulled out his phone and started taking photos, while Mr Little sat there not moving, wondering what was going on.
It turned out a crested tern had landed on his head.
“I didn’t even feel it up there!” he said.
“They never land on a person’s hat.”
But the story does not end there. After this experience, he and Mr Jones were again fishing just after daylight on Tuesday, August 28 in the same spot during what he called “pretty rugged conditions”.
“I’d say we were the only boat out there from Sydney to Melbourne!” he said.
The took the boat into the Tathra bay area to get out of the wind where they sat about 1km in the ocean, catching the occasional fish.
Then a kookaburra landed near Mr Little.
“Leon put his hands on him and picked him up. We thought ‘he’s gone if he flies away, he’d die’,” he said.
They put the bird in a bucket and named him Cole the Kookaburra before deciding to head in.
“I said we’re going home, as this is the best day I’ve ever had out to sea!” Mr Little said.
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Once they made it to shore the two men called WIRES, who sent members to Mr Little’s house to check on the kookaburra, but said it looked like it was fine.
They opened the lid of the container and the bird flew into a nearby tree. Mr Little gave it a last meal of some mince then it flew away.
He thought the bird may have been blown out across the ocean due to the winds, “but noone knows why he was out there”.
“If he had hit the water he’d have died,” Mr Little said.
“We being the only boat out there, that’s what makes the odds one million to one.
“It really was just the most phenomenal thing to ever happen!”