I apologize in advance for the long post....
The day started like any ordinary month end day after a holiday in the
accounting department. But an early morning phone call changed
everything! I had got to work around 7:15 and was settling in looking
through emails after the long weekend. I work in accounting and it is
month end closing so lots of stuff to do and emails to read. My phone
rang and it was the security guard at our mill entrance. He said that
one of the hourly workers had told him that the storm Friday night had
blown the osprey nest off the platform near our mill entrance and that
the young chick was on the ground. He knew I took pictures of birds and
asked if I could help. I immediately grabbed my hard hat and glasses,
put on my steel toed shoes and headed up the road. The bird turned out
to be on the adjoining mills property. The nest had blown off the
platform and it fell to the ground toward the other mill's fence and the
bird must have floated down onto their property. It was up against the
fence and appeared uninjured, just scared. I talked to the guard and he
agreed we could rescue the bird.
So I headed back to the office to figure out how to do that...first call
to the Wildlife Center. They don't open until 9am...it was still before
8...hmmm. Called the after hours number, went to a voice mail. So I
decided to call VDGIF. Got through and they suggested I talked to a
wildlife biologist...transferred to his number, he was not there, on
vacation til next week...he said to call his backup...call that number
to find out they were out today as well. Tried a couple other numbers
there without success...Called a couple people from the birding list and
asked for help...everybody was looking for numbers for me. By now it
was 9 and called back to the VWC. They were there...yay. They
suggested I call the VDGIF, I told them I had, they gave me a different
number to try. Also gave me the name of some rehabbers nearby...and not
so nearby. Called this VDGIF fellow and he was helpful. He gave me
another number to call for Fish and Game. Called him...the first thing
he asked was if I had called VDGIF?? So talked with him a bit and he
gave me some names of rehabbers in the area. Several were the same as
the others, by now I had about 12 different phone numbers written down
and it was after 10 and I was starting to doubt having any success. My
phone rang and it was a rehabber from Warsaw. She was most nice and
asked me many questions. She told me what I needed to do, how to do it,
and what to do after I did it. She gave me the number to a vet hospital
in Petersburg that helped with rehabs. I called them and explained
everything. They were more than willing to help, but we had to get the
bird to them. OK, we can do this. I thought about who to get to help
and called a fellow photographer that works out in the mill...big guy,
should be able to handle this little bird easily... ;-)
He was more than happy to help and said he would be up in 10 minutes.
20 minutes later he shows up and he has this package under his arm along
with his gloves. He had gone by the supplies area and gotten some kind
of welding guard...a very heavy suede jacket that covers your arms and
body...he was ready! So we got in the car and headed up there. No bird
along the fence...well, this is not good. We drove along and saw
nothing. Parked and the security guard said that we had just missed
it...it had tried to fly, got about 4 feet off the ground and when it
landed, it went into this concrete pipe pit near the fence...argh. We
went over and sure enough the bird was sitting on the ground in the pit
8 feet below us looking at us. Mommy and daddy osprey talking to us
overhead. Well, now we can not do anything because you need to have a
confined space permit to go in the hole, not to mention, we weren't real
keen on going down into a 6x6 hole with a bird of prey....
So by now, the security people had called the boss security and she came
over, she called the environmental manager, and we had to wait for him.
So we waited and he finally got there....hmmm. He said that they had to
rescue one several years back and he had the contact info of the DGIF
people...I told him I had tried them, but he said he would handle it.
We exchanged phone numbers and emails and he promised he would tell me
when they heard something. He called me about 12:30 and said he had
gotten hold of the DGIF officer that covered Prince George and he
couldn't be there until 3, but he was coming.
So about 3:30, I got a call that they were there and to come over. All
I had was by little point and shoot camera I keep in my purse, so that
would have to do. The officer had a large fish net with an extending
handle and the environmental guy had one from their mill. They went
down on opposite sides of the pit and came together at the bird and it
went right into the net. they brought it up and it seemed very calm.
The officer untangled it from the net and got it into a pet
carrier...took all of about 2 minutes. Yay!! Success!! The officer
was taking it the vet in Petersburg for them to assess it and see what
they needed to do.
Despite all the issues and difficulties, I felt very relieved that we
had saved this little guy. Had it to do over, would do it in an instant!
The few pics I got are at:
http://public.fotki.com/bhouston/miscellaneous/nature_pics/20110705-osprey-rescue/
As Lee said about his rescue, I don't have all the names but thank
everyone involved. It was a very worthwhile effort by everyone.
Barbara Houston
New Kent, VA
