Residents in the west Quebec municipality of La Pêche have rescued a loon that had been trapped by rapidly encroaching lake ice.

Rescuers used a tethered raft to move along the ice to the trapped loon while a Canada goose looks on. (Courtesy Michael Matthews) The loon was born this summer on Pike Lake in La Pêche, north of Edelweiss. Its parents and siblings took off for southern climates in October.

But the loon stayed behind and could no longer take off from the lake, which only has a few metres of open water left to swim, fish and take off in.

Celine Perrier said the bird was rescued Friday morning at 7 a.m. when she and two others made a raft using two flat-bottom canoes secured together with two-by-fours.

Perrier said the setup took 20 minutes and the rescue itself took less than five minutes.

The volunteers used a fish net to get the loon on board and then placed the bird in a container.

The bird is now at Ottawa's Wild Bird Care Centre.

If the loon is healthy, residents want to release it into a bigger, ice-free lake, where they hope the loon will finally head south for the winter.