It was just another day watching the Osprey…little did I know what was to unfold.
Two of the chicks started with allot of flapping and the one chick went out of the nest backwards and dropped, easy to see that it wasn’t a intentional fledge.It then found it’s wings and made a low circle around the nest area and came to rest on the road.
Since you won’t often see an Osprey on the ground I was clicking away like crazy…then noticed that it appeared to have an injured foot. Immediate thought was it needed help. The bird then took to flight and made an attempt to return to the nest but ended up on the ground again…at this point I grabbed up the bird and put it in a box that was supplied by a resident near by.
With bird in box it was about to start it’s trip to Wildlife Haven by way of Gimli Conservation and later Jim Duncan.
Closer inspection showed that the chick had gotten rapped up in fishing line most likely brought in by the adults and the line was cutting of circulation on the foot.
Under the care of the folks at Wildlife Haven for a couple days they determined that the foot was to far gone and the bird had to be euthanized. I/we where all hopeful for a full recovery so the chick could be released back into the wild…sad but these things happen in the wild.
Operation Nest Clean-up is now underway to clear out the debris from this site…thanks to all those that will be involved.
