An angler came to the rescue of a screech owl in distress.
As much as we love fishing, one thing we do not love is discarded fishing line. We see it laying at all our favorite spots all the time and it is infuriating that our fellow anglers do not bother to clean up their messes. Aside from being bad for the environment, discarded fishing lines pose an extreme hazard to other forms of wildlife.
Case in point this video out of New Jersey where an angler encountered a tiny screech owl that was caught in a length of fishing line caught in a tree. When he finds the bird, it is literally hanging by its wing and is in great distress.
Using extreme care, he cuts the owl down and then uses his line clippers to remove the tangled length of line from his wing. It is a feel-good video about the good things outdoorsmen and women do that often go unnoticed.
Screech owls are some of the smallest owls in North America. The one here was likely full grown. Because of that smaller size, many people have never seen one. Or they might mistake them for another bird since most people associate owls with size. In any case, these birds are important in nature because they eat lots of small rodents that can cause problems for humans.
Kudos to this guy for doing the right thing and getting this bird cut down. We hope he also removed the length of line the bird was snagged on before he left. This owl would have died a slow, painful death had this angler not happened to wander past.
Let this video serve as a reminder of the dangers of leaving behind bits of fishing line and other trash. This stuff simply does not belong in nature and can cause a lot of harm if the wrong animal happens to wander past. We are just glad to see that this story had a happy ending!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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