More sad news….I just recieved word from a vet at The Raptor Center that the osprey chick that was rescued Monday evening had to be euthanized. This one suffered the same catastrophic injuries that the other two chicks who were discovered hanging from a cell tower or ballfield light…severely dislocated hip from the long struggle to free itself. At least it didnt have to die slowly while hanging there. We are hoping that in the future we may be able to rescue these birds sooner….tho we have too many nests to check them all daily. We hope the monitors we do have might check nests on cell towers more frequently at fledging time. Its such a critical time for these young birds and it tends to be a time when some monitors start to think of osprey season as winding down…when its actually the time that these young birds are most likely to get into trouble and need our help. Fledging time is a fragile time. The mortality rate is high in the first year for ospreys, with some estimating that less than 40% will survive. Ospreys are a species that can live a fairly long time, 20-25 years. They will have many breeding successes and many failures in those years, but that knowledge doesnt make these losses any easier to take.
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