VALLEY MILLS, Texas (KXXV) — "My neighbor called me early Sunday morning," said Reg Lindberg, founder of Superior Ostrich.
He had no idea that a phone call would lead to a week-long search.
"He said 'hey man we got major problems down here. You need to come down,'" Lindberg said.
Lindberg traveled from Decatur back to Valley Mills to find 150 ostriches missing after last weekend's extreme flooding.
"Then we started getting a few here and there and now we're down to missing about 120, roughly speaking," Lindberg said.
Bosque County
Flooding leads to more than 130 ostriches on the loose in Bosque County
While searching for the missing birds, Lindberg said a few died along the Bosque River. He told me the bank is steep due to erosion and the birds can't climb it. But it's the calls about live birds that give him hope.
I was with him Thursday morning as he captured two birds.
"We'll keep going. We're still looking. I mean, I want to find these. I want to try to find as many as I can live or dead," Lindberg said.
His mission continued after a neighbor stopped by to report seeing another ostrich not too far from our location.
He showed me where the ostriches escaped during the massive flood.
For now, he's hoping you and other neighbors continue to report more ostrich sightings.
"Somebody may call me and say 'hey there's a bird that appeared after here on the prairie someplace way away from the river,'" Lindberg said.
If you see any ostriches in Bosque County, please contact the farm at (214) 514-3934.
