Young Osprey Returns To The Wild

The 5-month-old Osprey was a little shy at first, looking around at all the cameras shuttering. Its large eyes, dotted with a piercing pupil, scanned the crowd gathered to see this young bird be introduced back into the wild. 

After a few minutes the bird seemed to triple in size when it spread its wings and flew off, hovering for a moment above the team that rescued it before finally flying up and away. Those rescuers found the bird a few hundred yards away in its nest after its mother had been killed. It landed back onto the old railroad bridge where its old nest still sits. 

Wendy Perrone, executive director of the Three Rivers Avian Center, said they hand-fed the bird until he was healthy enough to learn to fish for himself. 

“We’re very fortunate that the Division of Natural Resources, Tate Lohr hatchery over there and Oakvale, West Virginia, donated cold fish from their facility to raise him on,” Perrone said. “It has been a true blessing because he’s very healthy. He knows what sort of fish to look for.” 

Now she says her job for this bird has ended and he is in the hands of the nearby adult Ospreys. The bird will learn how to survive in the wild by watching the older Ospreys, and copying them. 

“Just before we did the release, an Osprey flew right over top of us. He’s got an adult to mimic or hang out with,” Perrone said. “It may well be the dad of the nest because he’s been going back to the nest. So we’re very excited.”

Lindsay Hermanns participated in the rescue back in June. She’s a bird biologist and a climber.

“To be able to see it actually full-grown, and then able to fly and being released in the area where it, you know, is essentially rescued from, is really fulfilling,” Hermanns said. “You get goosebumps.”

The young Osprey since being released has been seen interacting with other male Ospreys and seems to be doing well. This fall it will likely begin its migration to Mexico, where it will spend the winter. 

There is a pending investigation about the death of the mother with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources.