I stayed in a house on a canal near Venice, Fl (west coast) about 10 years
ago, and there was a very, very tame Great Blue Heron who the residents
called "Charlie" that had a fishing line caught around its wing. Charlie
used to go door to door (dock to dock), expecting residents to feed him Hot
Dogs (yuck)  The (elderly) neighbors told me that he had been wearing the
fishing line as long as they knew him, which was years.

 Herons and egrets down there were so BOLDLY opportunistic in interactions
with people.  There was a fisherman across the canal who cleaned his catch
next to the water while a bunch of herons of different varieties stood
around and pretended not to be watching. I suppose he was happy to give them
the leftovers, but every few minutes I would hear "HEY!" , and look to see a
heron/egret flying away with a whole fish from right off the table.  I'm not
sure whether they might try to take a fish right off of a line.. but I
wouldn't be that surprised, I guess.

Still I did wish there was a way to get that line off of Charlie, but he
seemed to be managing OK without it... Unless that was what somehow forced
him into a life of panhandling.

Lila

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