{"id":79106,"date":"2019-12-07T06:47:51","date_gmt":"2019-12-07T13:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=79106"},"modified":"2019-12-07T10:49:49","modified_gmt":"2019-12-07T17:49:49","slug":"a-good-samaritan-at-a-local-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/07\/a-good-samaritan-at-a-local-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"A Good Samaritan At A Local Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t’ know her real name so I’ll just call her Rachel.<\/p>\n

But first a little (a lot of?) background about why this seemingly small gesture meant so much to me.<\/p>\n

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I regularly haunt several local ponds for birds and one of them has had a huge problem with discarded fishing line for years. I often see discarded monofilament line on the pond edges, birds with line trailing from their extremities and occasionally birds with missing legs almost certainly caused by fishing line cutting off circulation. Once at this pond I even photographed a merganser with a fish hook stuck in its bill and on another occasion in my very early blogging days I photographed the same thing with an adult Bald Eagle<\/a> in northern Utah.<\/p>\n

For me one of the most memorable victims at the pond was this Common Merganser missing its left foot. But this bird was a true survivor. Can you imagine trying to catch fish underwater with one webbed foot missing? And notice how fast it’s running on top of the water with that handicap. This bird wasn’t taking off, instead it was chasing after another merganser with a fish.<\/p>\n

The stump churning uselessly in midair almost broke my heart.<\/p>\n

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The following winter I found what was apparently the same bird, now an adult in breeding plumage, resting on the shore of the same pond. This bird was obviously thriving even with the missing foot. I saw him multiple times that winter and became quite attached to him.<\/p>\n

And speaking of attached…<\/p>\n

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This is the adult Bald Eagle that used the huge elm tree in my yard as a roost for much of December and part of January for multiple years almost like clockwork. The eagle was attracted to my tree because it’s near the pond where it hunted for waterfowl and presumably fish, my home is on a hill and that tree was the tallest tree in the entire area. The eagle felt safe and secure so close to its food source.<\/p>\n

But on the afternoon I took this photo I saw something highly disturbing. Look carefully and you’ll see fishing line hanging down from the eagle with the apparent remains of a coot attached to one end. I can only surmise that the coot became entangled in the line at the pond which made it easy prey for the eagle who then became a second victim of the line. When the eagle took off from this perch it somehow left the fishing line and coot remains behind. You can imagine my relief!<\/p>\n

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Some years ago I contacted Tom Wharton, a long-time and highly respected outdoor columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune (and the father of one of my ex-students) about the problem with discarded fishing line at this pond. Tom met us down at the pond to see the problem for himself and became incensed enough by what he saw to feature an article about it in the Trib. City parks then installed fishing line disposal stations on the perimeter of the pond (I don’t think the Parks Department is particularly fond of bad publicity but I still give them credit for eventually doing the right thing.) Those disposal stations have helped but too many anglers are what I call “slob fishermen” so the problem persists.<\/p>\n

Ok, now to my point. Finally.<\/p>\n

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Meet “Rachel” and her dog.<\/p>\n

Yesterday while I was looking in vain for interesting birds to photograph at the pond I spotted Rachel walking her dog on the far side of the pond and about 150 yards away. She first caught my attention when I saw her properly dispose of a dog poop bag. That always gets my attention because there seems to be as many “slob dog owners” as there are slob fishermen so I thought “good for her”.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later I was surprised when I saw her pick up something else near the pond because I thought her dog probably hadn’t pooped a second time already so out of curiosity I aimed my lens her way once again. But this time she had picked up a long piece of discarded monofilament fishing line with leaf and twig debris attached. I’m not sure why but in this shot she appears to be taking a photo of the fishing line with her phone. I didn’t notice that until I looked at the photo on my computer.<\/p>\n

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And then she and her dog walked some distance out of her way to properly dispose of the line at one of the disposal stations. Once again the phrase “good for her” came to mind. And she’s not even a fisherman.<\/p>\n

So when she eventually made her way all the way around the pond I made it a point to thank Rachel for her good deed. She’s a very pleasant young woman. She said that she visits the pond regularly and has noticed multiple birds entangled in line, the implication being that it was her way of preventing further avian mayhem.<\/p>\n

Her good deed may seem like a little thing but to me it’s a big deal.<\/p>\n

And to birds it’s huge.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n