A BIRD caused a flutter at a new sewage works yesterday when it chose the wrong spot to take a dip.

The cormorant flew in on Thursday afternoon to North-umbrian Water's £2.3m development at Stanhope, County Durham, where workers found it swimming in shallow water in a nine-metre tank.

When it resisted all attempts to catch it, RSPCA inspectors arrived yesterday morning.

They considered bringing in a crane to lower a rescuer four metres down the side of the tank to where the stranded creature was making desperate attempts to fly out.

They were on the point of calling in the fire and rescue service when contractors working for the water company decided to give the bird one last chance.

Byzak's excavator operator, Nigel Irvine, from Crook, County Durham, dipped the machine's bucket into the water, scooping up the cormorant at the first attempt.

Safely out of the tank, the frightened bird then attacked its rescuer before flying off.

A Northumbrian Water spokesman said: "Fortunately, it swam into the bucket because it had only one chance. It was diving again and again into the water and getting wetter and wetter. It couldn't take off and it was distressed."

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said: "We were very concerned about the bird. It was very weak and distressed because it couldn't take off and we fed it scraps of food to keep it alive."