Birds in the water

[Grady]

It has been raining off and on here in southern Indiana for the past couple of weeks. Today there is a light rain steady rain. I was outside and noticed a bird in my pond "swimming" to shore. I noticed two more grounded birds under a rose bush at the base of their pole. They all appear to be fully feathered but very wet. While I was looking at these, two more hit the water in the middle of the pond and were "swimming" to shore at the urging of what seemed to be half the colony. Should I do anything with these birds like get them inside for a while to dry off?

[KathyF]

Grady, grab a 5-gallon bucket and put some dry straw in the bottom. Put the jumpers in there to dry off. Put a towel over the top. I put jumpers in my garage if its warm. I don't bring them into the house due to mites. Once dry, put them back in the nest / colony. Don't leave them on the ground - snakes, cats, etc. will take them.

[Grady]

Yeah, I couldn't wait. I went out and got them. Unfortunately one was missing already. They are in my garage in a warm, dry, large, ventilated container and drying off. They certainly could fly at one point because they were a fairly long way from the houses. I'm hoping they just fly back to where they are supposed to be when they dry off.

[MamaBruff]

Am wondering, since they are newbies, they haven't seen pond surface vs wet concrete, and for some reason though ti was solid! Good eye there, you saved some lives today!