My left foot

Today, with the help of Dee Oudin, FELICITY got her new "toe shoe". When I removed the sandal, her foot looked pretty good but the center toe was still crooked. I put a splint on it that went all the way to the bottom of her foot. Now it's straight and will hopefully stay that way when this bandage is removed.

In the one photo I'm feeding her some of the fresh trout I opened for her. I only handed her two chunks before leaving the rest to her. She ate about a quarter of the fish starting with the head and will get the rest of it tomorrow. So far so good on the prognosis for this beautiful baby.

Deja vu all over again

On July 14th, 2014, we saved two baby osprey from a nest platform after their parents were murdered. One survived and was fostered in a nest near the dam.

Yesterday I got a call from Dee that the new adults have two chicks and one seemed to be tangled in twine in the nest and can't fledge. I called Rocky Mountain Power and they immediately said they would be out at the nest site this morning. Luckily this nest was less than 50' so was easily reached by their large bucket truck.

John Berry and I went up and I managed to grab the chick and cut her away from the mass of twine. I thought, at first glance, that the foot was dead but it isn't. Very warm with rather swollen toes. As I held her, Dee gently removed all the twine fibers from that foot and then I brought her home. Her name is FELICITY.

The first photo is of her twisted foot. The second is her wearing a custom made sandal to make her toes stay in position and straight out. She can close her foot but not open it yet. After a few days I'll remove this bandage and by then I'll hopefully be able to put on "toe shoes", a support for each individual toe so she can move them up and down.

If all goes well she'll have the full use of her foot in a couple weeks and we can take her back to the nest site for release. Thanks to Dee and Denny Drewes of Oudin Enterprises and John Berry, Mark Preston and Lonny Owen of Rocky Mountain Power. These are the same members of the osprey dream team who rescued the babies two years ago. RMTN Power is the best ever.

Deja vu all over again

You can see how high the nest platform is. That's mom standing above her.

Remember GRUMPY? Well, it's happened again. This is BREEZE, a fledgling Osprey who was found hanging upside down below her nest platform. She was caught up in fishing line and it had wound around her right leg above her hock. Sort of like an embedded collar on a dog, the line cut in around the entire leg. Thanks to Game Warden, Bill Robertson, she was rescued and brought here. He also did a good job of holding her while I removed all the line, applied an antiseptic spray and bandaged her leg.

At first glance I was sure the foot was dead but she is standing on it, can move the toes, and has a super attitude. I don't know how long she hung there but I have my fingers crossed that this will all heal and she'll be releasable. She was found on the Torchlight Oil Field near Basin.

SAD UPDATE: After having her bandage changed this morning this amazing young bird decided it was too much. She died shortly after I brought her home. I hope this is the last of the osprey I get in with this type of damage.

Release pics

I now have a couple more release photos of GRUMPY, the osprey I took over east of Buffalo. These came from Tracy Jones, the Powder River Energy person who made the arrangements with ranch owner Phil Little. Phil and I were discussing the whole process after she flew away. Thanks to these two gentlemen this was an extraordinary release.

She's off

Today was a most exciting time for me and others but especially GRUMPY. I drove more than three hours over the mountains to the east to Leiter, WY. That's about 35 miles east of Buffalo. The drive was outstanding, the national forest was awesome. It was a bit chilly on top but then the snow still on the ground had something to do with that.

Tracy Jones from Powder River Energy was there with a big camera and took shots of the release. The rancher who originally found her was gracious enough to let me release her back on his property. Of course I was worried she'd land on a power pole again but she didn't. There is an active osprey nest nearby but the adults are firmly in charge of it so she'll have to go farther afield.

I'll post a photo as soon as Tracy sends me some of his. Mine were a washout.

She's up high now

I decided to place GRUMPY in to a larger area so she could practice flying. She's found out she could make it up to the highest wall perch, about 15' above ground. Now that all is fixed with her left foot/leg, and she's flying circles in the mew, she's going back to Leiter, WY for release next Tuesday, weather permitting. I was hoping for today but a large storm is predicted for that area. I didn't want to drive over the mountain in that plus I want good weather for her release back to the wild.

Great news

GRUMPY is doing so well and now she's completely free of any bandaging on her legs and left foot. As you can see in this photo taken just today, she's standing normally with her left leg and her foot is flat. She's also eating a whole rainbow trout every day on her own. I no longer have to force feed her.

When she first arrived I didn't think there was a chance of her recovering from her injuries after hanging upside down for hours. I was afraid the tendon or nerve damage to her left leg was permanent. She's fooled everyone, probably because she's such a fighter. Now she'll be put in a larger area so she can exercise her wings and prove she can "catch" fish in a baby pool.

Some improvement

Some good words about GRUMPY, the female Osprey. I decided to try something different so put a hobble on her legs. It stops them from splaying out and has now allowed her to stand. She stands on her right leg just fine but still can't open her left foot. And it's a weaker leg.

Osprey are notorious for not eating on their own and so far she's typical. I've had to hand feed her since she got here but today I put her into a larger mew, with a flat floor perch and gave her a whole trout. I cut it into small strips hoping it would make it easier for her to pull off pieces. I hope it works.

UPDATE: She is now wearing "toe shoes", something I invented for use on a golden eagle suffering from lead poisoning. She couldn't keep her foot open so the individual splints allowed her to walk normally. GRUMPY is now wearing them on the four toes of her left foot and they seem to be working on her too. And the most wonderful news, today she ate a whole trout by herself. Osprey rarely do that in captivity and by doing so her stress level will be much less. Now if her left foot just comes back enough for release......

Hanging in there

But in this case it's a horrible thing to have happen. This photo shows the guys from Powder River Energy rescuing an adult female osprey from one of their power poles. GRUMPY had been building a nest, had a half dozen sticks in place, when she apparently stepped the wrong direction and got her left leg caught in a strand of baling twine.

Osprey tend to use a lot of non-nest material in the construction, plastic bags, twine, rags, etc. I'm amazed that more young birds aren't caught just before they fledge.

Thank you to Dan Thiele, WGF and Brad Rogers, USFWS, for making the arrangements to get the bird out of this sticky situation and driving her here from Buffalo. That's about a three hour drive over the mountains to the east.

Right now it's wait and see time. It may take many weeks for the damage to repair itself. The really bad thing is that osprey are very difficult to keep in captivity as they don't self feed very well. That means force feeding which is not fun for either of us. Hopefully she'll get into eating trout by herself.

Grand Ol' Osprey

That is the headline in the most recent issue of the Cody Enterprise. Now that the article has been printed, I'm able to share the photos of the baby osprey rescued after her parents were murdered. In a post over a month ago is the story of two baby osprey whose rescue was necessary after the loss of the adults.

Thanks to a lot of people the surviving chick was fostered into a nest with two resident chicks. That fostering has been a great success all around.

RMTN lineman, John Berry, and I tried to put the chick into one nest but the resident baby was a couple weeks younger so that wouldn't work as it might put the life of the younger bird in jeopardy. Our chick is wearing a hood to keep her quiet.

The second try at fostering was a huge success. As you can see tho, it took some ingenuity to make it happen. Foreman Steve Lassiter suggested a 6" x 6' tube to help transfer the baby to the nest as the bucket was not quite close enough. Lineman John Berry and I talked it over while 55' up in the bucket and decided to go for it even tho this, as far as I know, has never been done before. John stretched out as far as he could holding the tube. I put the chick, head first, into the tube and then gently pushed her with a padded pole to the nest. She plopped easily into the nest just as planned.

Here is the final result, our chick standing in her new home with the other babies hunkered down as they'd been taught. Dee Oudin has checked the nest often and reports that all three babies are doing well, the adults are feeding them and they should fledge soon.

Cody Enterprise story written by Buzzy Hassrick, photos by Dee Oudin, John Berry and Steve Lassiter. The rescue wouldn't have happened without the nest monitoring by Dee Oudin and her noting the loss of the parents.

Didn't work

At least this time. Steve and John from Rocky Mountain Power met Dee and me at the nest site where I was going to foster one of the orphan osprey babies. We went through all the safety measures, I had to wear a safety harness and hard hat as did John, and away we sailed up into the blue sky.

Both parents were very upset to see this giant truck under their nest so constantly screamed at us. Little did we know, but was seen by those on the ground, the male was dive bombing us. He never made contact but was just a few feet from our heads.

The sad news is that my orphan is about two weeks older than the chick in the nest so s/he couldn't be put there. As s/he is older s/he would have garnered most of the food making it likely their chick wouldn't survive.

We are still holding out hope for another nest just west of town. That one also has one or two chicks but the deciding factor will again be their ages compared to mine. We'll keep trying until something works right.

Awesome rescue

Mark bringing down the first of the chicks. Awkward but it worked and you can see how high up the nest was.

Getting much needed fluids.

Now for some groceries, Atlantic caught salmon.

You talking to ME! ! ! !

Mark Preston and Lonny Owen, RMTN Power guys who saved these babies.

Last Saturday I got a call from a friend, Dee Oudin, about the osprey nest she and her husband Jim have on their property just a few miles from here. She noticed the male had disappeared on the 3rd or 4th but the female was still taking care of the two chicks. Then after seeing the female on that morning, she disappeared. It is believed that they were murdered but of course we'll never know. These birds eat only fish and there are people out there with ponds who don't want any of their stocked fish taken by a bird of prey so they resort to shooting them.

Of course this all happened on the weekend so nothing could be done until today. I called the Rocky Mountain Power company this morning and left a message about having them come out with their bucket truck to retrieve the chicks. Then Dee also called them and got a confirmation that they would be there shortly. We all met and discussed just what to do but the hang up is that the field under the nest was flood irrigated and the huge truck wouldn't have made it through the mud.

Luckily Dennis Reed, of Reed Farms, gave us permission to drive across his hay field then over a dropped electric fence to the nest area. Thanks to the amazing work of Mark Preston and Lonny Owen, the truck was eventually in the perfect place. Mark went up with a fish net and scooped one of the babies up, came down and handed it off. Did the same for the second one. It all went off without a hitch.

Because they had been under a blazing sun and without food for at least three days, I sat in the shade of the power truck and tubed them with electrolytes and dextrose. I also gave them some small pieces of Atlantic salmon I'd purchased at Albertson's. At their age they aren't strong enough to stand for long anyway. They are weak but are now in a tire nest inside my mews and have been given more salmon from my forceps.

The projected ending will be fostering them into a nearby nest with only one chick and two parents. Hopefully these two will be strong enough for that to happen by this weekend.

In their new tire nest, weeds, carpet and all.

Untimely swim

I spent this morning at the Arbor Day tree giveaway in Cody and on the way home got a call to pick up a downed Osprey. This is BELLE. I hope she is just a year old and doesn't have a mate or a nest set up as she has a badly broken right wing so won't be getting home for a long time. That is if it's fixable. She is now bandaged to prevent further damage and will go in on Monday for xrays and to see if repair surgery is an option.

This is a very difficult species to keep as they aren't the best eaters in captivity. Hopefully she will be an exception and readily take to being handed a whole fish and not have to catch it herself.

NOTE: She died Wednesday morning. Just too much trauma and stress for this wonderful young lady.

Fisherman

This is AHAB, a two month old male osprey who apparently didn't have a very good landing this morning. Instead of using his two feet he ended up hitting his chest on the ground. Because of the bruising he's unable to open and close his feet very vast. Nor can he stand at the moment.

Thanks to Phyllis Baker, the land owner where the nest is located, he was quickly found and gathered up. Benj Brown, WGF biologist in Thermopolis, met me half way and transferred this baby to me this morning.

Now the problem is finding enough fish to fill him up. As that's the only thing they eat it will be a challenge but I have friends who love to fish and have said they'd help. I can also buy trout at the store but it's not the whole body. If all goes right this young bird will only be here for a couple weeks. He just has to be strong enough to use his feet as they were designed to catch and hold fish.

This photo shows him being weighed (2# 14oz) before being settled into his container of shredded paper which will support him while he's getting stronger.

Note: Today, Wednesday, I put AHAB down. He'd lost all movement in his feet so there was no hope of him every being able to stand and feed himself. Not a good week at IBR with the loss of both the old eagle and this beautifuly baby.

Young man of the lake

Today I got a call from Guy Highland who works for North Fork Anglers. He had some people from Minnesota out north of Cody on 2AB trying to catch the elusive fish. They didn't witness it but heard an osprey hit an overhead wire and saw it spiral down to the water. When Guy called me the bird had been making his way to shore and when close enough was taken out of the water and put in a jacket. I took this very chilled bird, named TIMMY, to Drs. Blessing and Pedersen for x-rays as his right wing was badly broken. Unfortunately the breaks were many and too close to his shoulder joint. Because osprey are very difficult to keep in captivity and because this was such a bad fracture, the decision was made to euthanize him. Very sad when this happens but at least there was someone nearby who cared enough to call for help. Thanks Timmy for finding the bird and to Guy for making the call.