It has been quite a day in Ospreyland. It is going to take me a few days to recover from all the excitement and tension.
The osprey chick that was placed as a foster chick yesterday, after falling out of a barn silo, fell out of the Patuxent nest of its foster parents around 19:15 nest time this evening. Many citizen birders watching the streaming cam were shocked but had enough wits about them to go into action. They first wrote of the incident on chat. There was not an emergency number so all the wildlife numbers in Maryland were tried including the Wildlife Emergency Line.
The chick was rescued and placed back in the nest at 21:12:54. Here is that moment:
Wet but home!
One of the chatters mentioned the chick going over the side. That and all the phone calls to the Wildlife Services got people moving. I want to acknowledge the good work of S Shen who brought this up on the chat. S Shen wrote to me to get me to call because she was worried about this chick and she had tried the park office and it was closed. I did phone the Emergency Wildlife services. But a round of applause. S Shen has some of the sharpest eyes I know watching these cameras and noting – the good and the bad. She immediately moves into action. This is what was said about their notifications and the team effort that went into action:
“4:05 AMTom O’ConnellA big thank you to S Shen and the community of people that came together to notify officials &assisted in rescuing this chick. Great work everyone! USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center Director.”
I understand that these chicks cannot fly out of the water yet but they can float. The hope is that they do not ingest too much water.
Thanks to everyone who made this a happy ending! Round of applause for S Shen.
Thanks to the Patuxent River Osprey Cam 2 where I took my screen shots.
Thanks Mary Ann and we are so thankful
The chick was rescued. We called and sent messages to everyone we could find.
S Shen was really on top of it ! I hope the chick stays away from the edge of this nest. Thanks again Mary Ann and S Shen !
Thank you for calling everyone and sending messages, Linda. I wasn’t on chat. A friend sent me the posting. Yes, you are all so wonderful, and this is such a happy day. I hope this bird does not always ‘fall’ out of things! If it is OK, I will put it in thanks to you tomorrow.
Mary Ann of course and your very welcome. Have a great evening!
Mary Ann you gave us some numbers to call. Thanks to you too! I couldn’t get the one but the other one I did and it led me to another.
All of you are so fantastic. But wouldn’t it be so much easier – and less tense – if they had those numbers right up top on those streaming cams? It was like trying to find someone at Tiny Tot’s (Tumbles) streaming cam. It takes a village and I am so grateful to all of you that love these beautiful birds and are willing to pick up a phone to help them.
Hi Mary
Thanks for the newsletter and compliment but in my comment to you…I did say it was Burky4 that mentioned in the chat room that she saw only 2 chicks.
I saw that and headed to the Patuxent nest2 nest cam
So a shout out to Burky4!
All is well right now at the nest.
Several years ago I lurked a nest cam in Lake Barkley Kentucky and this one didn’t have a chat room. One of the chicks (about 2 was old) in the nest was entangled in fishing line. There was a Facebook that gave updates. I tried to contact Ed Ray first. I suddenly remembered a his friend he mentioned that lived near the nest…I got his phone # from the internet and the chick was saved.
I never thought to be part of a team to help in this rescue.
Again, thanks to Butky4 for mentioning there were only 2 chicks .
Thanks to everyone in the O community that sprung into action.
It is 337a here…going back to sleep
Have a beautiful weekend🌺🐦🐦🐦🌺