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Photographer captures bald eagle tangled in fishing line

DAYTON — After a young Dayton bald eagle got fishing line wrapped around its leg, a man with extensive eagle knowledge is urging people to pick up after themselves.

“Very dangerous thing for birds,” eagle expert Jim Weller said.

He said fellow photographer Jordan Leland snapped a picture showing one of the Carillon Park young eagles with fishing line tangled around its foot. The bird was able to get itself free. However, Weller said in some cases the fishing line can cut a bird, cut off circulation, and hurt its ability to fly.

Now, Weller wants everyone to watch where they put their trash.

“That’s the terrible thing is, we could stop it, if we would just be responsible in disposing of our discarded fishing line,” Weller said.

He explained, that’s important for all people, no matter their proximity to the eagles.

“After we have a heavy rain, a lot of litter from upstream, maybe other cities will wash downstream,” Weller said.

He doesn’t want to see any other manmade issues hurt the eagles, especially after one of the juveniles died earlier this summer when it flew into power lines. Now that the remaining two juveniles and parents Orv and Willa are doing well, Weller said it is important to keep them safe.

“We’ve got to do what we can to protect those birds,” Weller said.

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