Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

OSPREY RESCUE

Rescued osprey on the mend at BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops

Apr 28, 2021 | 4:12 PM

KAMLOOPS — After getting tangled up in some problematic nesting materials, a rescued osprey is almost ready to check out of the BC Wildlife Park.

“We’ve given him a full week of cage rest at this time and we plan to have him go back out by the end of the week.” says Animal Care Manager Tracy Reynolds.

The bird had initially been saved by BC Hydro employees in the Ashcroft area after it was found hanging by its feet from the top of a power pole. Reynolds says shortly after it was taken down, the osprey was discovered on the edge of a nearby river, so a concerned citizen brought it to the Kamloops centre.

“I would assume it was going to the nest to start nesting. This is the time of year you’ll start seeing the birds pairing up and nesting. And obviously it got tangled up,” she says. “A lot of times you’ll see nests have baling twine and other things like that in them and and other materials that are not natural that they do get tangled up in.”

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On average, the Fawcett Family Wildlife Health Centre cares for half a dozen injured ospreys per year. Reynolds says the birds prefer to get their own meals and can be tricky to feed in care, so their stays are kept short.

“They’re fishing birds, so they catch live fish out of big lakes. Having a bowl of fish sitting in front of him is pretty foreign to an osprey. They don’t recognize that necessarily as food.”

Not every animal spotted by itself needs help, but in this case it was the right call to get the osprey checked out. The Centre’s team says the adult bird appears to be recovering well.

“Upon examination — we did an X-ray, we did blood work — just very basic blood work and we can’t see anything outwardly wrong with it which is good news,” says Reynolds, “And it could just be he was exhausted, or it could be a strain but at this point it’s hard to tell.”

Its not uncommon around this time of year to see young animals or fledgling birds on the ground alone, but the BC Wildlife Park says the parents usually aren’t far away, and asks the public to resist the urge to intervene if the animal appears unharmed.

“If they’re still looking fairly alert and moving around then they’re probably just fledglings and its natural,” notes Reynolds, “but if they start to look sickly with puffed up feathers and really lethargic, then that would be important to bring it in to us.”