I am currently the Camp Host at Steinaker State Park in Utah, 8 miles north of Vernal, UT. As such, when I am at the park, I am on duty, even though today is one of my days off.
At 6:00 am, a camper knocked on my door and said there was an owl hanging from fishing line by a wing in a tree at his site. He was about to leave, but stopped by to tell me about the bird. I have no phone service or numbers to call (I don’t officially started until Thursday), so there wasn’t much I could do until people started showing up a little later.
Our maintenace person showed up about 7:00 and I advised him about the bird. It was still alive and moving. It even attempted to fly, but was really caught up and too high for a ladder to reach. Larry called a bunch of numbers and we got our local LEO/Ranger, the camp manager, and eventually a wildlife resource person.
The LEO was able to cut the line holding the bird by standing on top of a truck. He had extended the cutting tool to finally cut the line. There were three of us standing below the bird with a blanket so that if the bird was not able to fly it would not fall to the ground. It was able to fly a little but it was so entangled, it flopped onto a stump in the water where it got entangled with the stump. Its mate flew over to keep it company until it went back to care for the babies.
When the wildlife person came, he put on waders and went into the lake and was able to grab the owl and got hold of his legs. He carried it over to a tub that acted as a level place for the bird while he cut out all the line. There was a lot of it wrapped around the owl’s wings, body, and feet. Turns out it was from the kite that was stuck in a tree. You could see the line wrapped around several trees where a couple of Great Horned Owls had a nest and were raising their two babies (cute fluffy critters).
After several people took their portraits with the owl, the wildlife guy took the bird to a tree nearby and let it go. It flew with no problems despite the small wound it had received while hanging. Its mate flew with it to the new tree and then flew back to take care of its babies.
There was a group of campers watching what was happening because of all the Dept. of Natural Resources (operators of the park) cars and hubbub. Certainly not the kind of activity that they had planned on seeing so early in the morning. By 9:00 am, the bird was sitting in a tree, trying to recall all that had happened to it (/s).
The metallic balloon is still stuck in the tree. What fool would fly a kite in the midst of some tallish trees? When it got caught, not tell anyone and leave it there and all that line to entangle birds. People can be the greatest problem for wildlife.