A wondrous sight for many turned into a rough day for a wayward duck at the Lake Berryessa Glory Hole.

9:20 p.m. update:

According to Rick Fowler - a water resources technician with the Solano County Water Agency, who took the now-viral video of the bird - he saw the duck make it out on the other side.

"It shot out of there like a bullet," Fowler said. "It flew through the turbulence and came out of the water shaking water like it didn't [know] what had happened."

Original story:

A wondrous sight for many turned into a rough day for a wayward duck at the Lake Berryessa Glory Hole.

A Mar. 4 social media post from Tori Fowler shows the Lake Berryessa Glory Hole in operation. Known formally as the Morning Glory Spillway, the mesmerizing scene only happens when the dam reaches capacity and produces a funnel-shaped outlet that allows water to bypass the dam.

However, a wayward duck ventures into the video and coasts nearer and nearer to the center of the Lake Berryessa Glory Hole.

Subverting any expectations of a possible escape, the duck gets sucked down into the funnel. The video ends not long after, begging the question as to what happened to the duck.

However, according to Melissa Vignau with the Solano Irrigation District, there's no way the duck actually made it through. "The velocity of water going through there would have torn it in pieces," Vignau said.

She said telephone poles and big trees go into the spillway and don't come out in one piece. Also, there was no way the person shooting the video could have seen if the duck came out the other side.

Fowler disagreed and said he was able to run over to the other end of the Glory Hall and look straight down on it. "It flew up over the turbulence and landed on the calmer water in the creek," he recalled.

To give you a better idea of the conditions in the spillway. The 'Glory Hole' has a 72-foot diameter at the crest. The shaft narrows to about 28 feet wide as it drops about 440 feet before it tails into a 90-degree angle. There is a water flow of about 3,600 cubic feet per second rushing through the shaft.

The duck in the video, is actually a cormorant, which is common in the watershed. But one going into the 'Glory Hole' is unusual. "I haven't seen a bird go there before," Vignau said. "That's a new one for me."

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