Pasco County workers pull fishing line from a cell tower’s nest.

(WSVN) – A Pasco County worker spotted a line in a bald eagle’s nest, and thanks to his quick wits, the chicks were saved.

According to FOX13, the incident took place in the Hudson when a general contractor was climbing a cell tower on Tuesday.

“Thanks to today’s great efforts, the lives of four bald eagles have been saved,” said Kim Rexroat, Audubon EagleWatch coordinator for Pasco and Hernando counties.

She said a volunteer spotted a line in a nest she had been watching for years.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s something out there,'” said Kathleen Westfall, an Audubon EagleWatch volunteer.

Rexroat said the company was working with the Raptor Center of Tampa Bay, Florida Fish and Wildlife, US Fish and Wildlife and the company that owns the tower to get permission to access the nest.

“These eaglets could be tied to a nest, they could have line wrapped around their feet where it cut off circulation, they could lose a toe, and eagles rely on their feet to hunt. It could have been awful,” Rexroat said.

An employee of the tower company climbed to the top of the tower, and the parents of the eagles circled around and watched carefully.

“He pulled all this fishing line out of the nest and looked for hooks. In fact, there are down feathers of eagles,” Rexroat said.

Westfall found the Eagles and said their timing was everything.

“You don’t want a later period of time when the adults might abandon the babies or the babies get so scared they flap their wings and fall out of the nest,” she said.

Westfall and Rexroat peered into their lenses, watching the nest all day to make sure the parents stayed with their babies.

They said they learned a lesson from the situation.

“We’re just asking fishermen, everyone, when they throw away their line, to dispose of it properly,” Rexroat said.

They said that at one point one of the adult eagles had a fishing line in its mouth.

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