Care and Consideration of Feathered Friends

Thanks for your great Oct. 25 photo of the fisherman feeding the egrets from fish he had caught himself at Balboa Lake in Encino. Unfortunately, birds do not always benefit so greatly from the fishermen’s presence there. The day before your photo appeared, while walking around Balboa Lake, I came upon three birds -- a pelican, a coot and a black bird -- that had become entangled in plastic fishing line that had carelessly been forgotten and left lying on the ground. All three birds were badly limping.

In fact, I’m not even sure that the pelican will be able to fly until somebody helps it get untangled, which is not an easy feat, as the birds are wild and scare easily.

As I understand, California law allows fishing in all bodies of water. But fishermen need to show more thoughtfulness and be more responsible regarding fishing lines and fishing weights and take their fishing gear home each time if they really want to help our feathered friends.

Narges Abadi

Van Nuys