On Saturday, September 21, 2019, at approximately 8:00 p.m., the Owl Moon Raptor Center received a call from Mark Decarli, who was boating and saw an osprey upside down in a tree in Pasadena.
Donna Cole, employees from the Owl Moon Center, and Bob Baltz, who volunteers for the Maryland Park Service with the Scales & Tales program and has quite a lot of experience with birds of prey, responded to assist in rescuing the bird.
After calling 911 and explaining it was an animal rescue and not a 911 emergency, Anne Arundel County Fire Department Division Chief Robert Brewer arrived on the scene a short time later and after a brief talk with him, he called in the Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Companies Tiller 13, where they expertly guided the ladder to exactly the right spot without harming the bird.
Bob was hooked up to a harness with one of the firefighters they climbed the ladder. Bob had already developed a plan to bring the bird in with the branch it was attached to.
The adult male osprey had fishing line wrapped around its talons (which is why it was hanging upside down in the tree), it also had a fishing hook and line embedded in its back. The osprey was taken to the Owl Moon Raptor Center.
Update via Owl Moon Raptor Center – “Hi all, Thank you for all your kind words. To update you on the osprey, he was bright and alert after resting. We gave him more fluids, antibiotics, and pain meds, then transported him to Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research, Inc. for surgery to remove the fish hook from his back. The surgery will require general anesthesia, and the operation is delicate due to the proximity of the hook to the osprey’s spine. Tri-State’s veterinarians are better equipped to perform this surgery than we are, so we requested transfer and they kindly accepted. If the surgery is a success, and no further injuries are discovered, we expect he will have a good prognosis for full recovery. We are sending positive thoughts his way tonight, and ask that you please do the same! Thank you!”
The Owl Moon Center depends on donations to help do what they do. If you would like to help, you can donate here.
All photos and video are courtesy of Donna, and the Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Department.
