At about noon Saturday, July 18, Tracie Young got a call from a man in York County reporting that he had spotted a bird hanging from a tree at Lake Redman.
The bird, a black-crowned night heron, had become tangled in fishing line and was unable to escape, Young said.
It happens now and then, as fishermen, casting in areas shaded by trees sometimes get their lines caught in overhanging branches and instead of trying to extricate it, they just cut it off, leaving a length of line with lures and hooks attached dangling from the tree. It’s often called catching a tree, which is a lot easier and more common than catching fish.
Young, founder of the Raven Ridge Wildlife Center, a haven in Washington Borough, in southern Lancaster County, that rescues and cares for injured or ill wildlife, called the Pennsylvania Game Warden for the area. The game warden called the Alliance Fire & Rescue in Red Lion, which had the gear and expertise to assist in what Young described as a “challenging rescue,” using a ladder truck to reach the bird as it swayed from the tree branch.
“The heron was carefully cut free from the fishing line and gently lowered into a net,” Young wrote in a Facebook post. “It was clearly exhausted and, after being secured, was handed over to the Game Wardens, who transported it to our facility.”
Young had asked that the fishing line be cut as far away from the animal as possible, leaving the line entangling the bird in place. Young said that helps them “identify and ensure the complete removal of any remaining line or hooks that might become embedded in the bird’s feathers.”
At the center, Young said, the fishing line was removed. The bird was entangled in two different kinds of fishing line – monofilament and what Young described as a green “braided” line, most likely fly-fishing line. Three lures with several hooks were also removed, she said.
None of the hooks had become embedded in the heron’s skin, which was good, but one strand of line was wrapped tightly around one of its legs, which is not good as it could have cut off circulation and cost the heron its leg. Fortunately, Young said, that line wasn’t wound tight enough to endanger the bird’s leg.
“It was quite a mess,” she said.
Herons are “high-stress birds,” Young said. “For that bird to be hanging there for I don’t know how long, he was exhausted.”
“He’s resting comfortably and he’s starting to eat, which is a good sign,” Young said. “He’s going to be going back to his rookery as soon as possible.”
The rescue planned to check with the game commission to see whether the black-crowned heron has a rookery near Lake Redman. Failing that, she said, the heron will be released at York’s Kiwanis Lake. “There are always a lot of herons there,” Young said.
Black crowned night herons sometimes get caught in fishing line when they perch on tree branches while hunting at night for fish, frogs or other critters that make up its diet. “They can’t see fishing line at night in the trees and when they go to take off, they can get tangled in the line,” Young said. “Sometimes, they are never found until it’s too late.”
She said she would hope that fishermen would police themselves and not leave line and lures tangled in trees. “It’s important for fishermen to clean up their line and hooks,” she said.
The black crowned night heron is an endangered species in Pennsylvania and protected under the state law because of what the Game Commission describes as “a decline in numbers and size of Pennsylvania colonies.”
They are often overlooked because of their nocturnal nature, according to the Game Commission. They are stocky with short, thick necks – not like the blue heron that many people envision when the species is mentioned – and can grow to be about 22 inches in length with a 45-inch wingspan.
