27-JUL-2008
A local fisherman saw her struggling in the water. He saw her get out of the water and fly to the shoreline where she came to rest on a pile of brush, wings outstretched.
27-JUL-2008
She blended in so well with her surroundings that had the fisherman not seen her, the injured bird may not have been noticed. The fisherman also noted that other boaters went by her and no one else noticed her on the river bank.
27-JUL-2008
With the help of the fisherman Don Baumgartner, a volunteer for the Feather, retrives the bird from the river.
27-JUL-2008
Upon first glance Don discovers the injured bird is our own Lady Blue. He also immediately realizes that both of her legs are broken and she is bleeding from an open wound in her thigh. She appeared to be losing considerable amounts of blood.
27-JUL-2008
The fisherman, Harry Wolfgram and Don prepare to bring the injured osprey back to the shore where Fisher is waiting to evaluate the bird.
27-JUL-2008
She was taken back to Fishers rehab center where she would be cared for overnight and then taken to the veterinarian in the morning for evaluation. She was made comforable, offered food, but she just sat quietly, wings still outstretched.
28-JUL-2008
An x-ray confirms the terrible truth, Lady Blue's injuries were from a gunshot.
*UPDATE**
This birds injuries were from a shotgun.
28-JUL-2008
By this time Lady Blue had lost a considerable amount of blood. Very shortly after this shot was taken by Fisher, Lady Blue succumbed to injuries sustained from the gunshot. For this bird, who migrated 3000 plus miles every winter to South America from Wisconsin...... her journey had come to an end.
28-JUN-2008
This is one of the last shots I took of Lady Blue bringing a fish back to her nest site for her only chick this year.
Ospreys are listed as a threatened specie on the Wisconsin Threatened and Endangered List. They are also protected under the Federal Migratory Bird Act.
Someone shot and killed a federally protected bird.
Within hours of her death a reward fund was established for the arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible for her death.
The investigation is on going.
03-AUG-2008
~ on a personal note ~
Every year I would wait with great anticipation for the phone call, "Guess who's back?!?" "Meet you at the nest?" "See you there!"
Fisher and I logged many hours under that nest. In warm, sunny weather, the cold, the heat, wind, humidity and sometimes mosquito laden, but we didn't care. It was fun and we enjoyed it. We would joke at times that we must be crazy. Between the two of us we have thousands of photos of her.
Lady Blue also bonded a friendship that no shooter can ever break. I learned about ospreys and other wild things and also, I learned about my friend. We shared laughs and troubles, we shared portions of our lives with one another. No shooter will ever take that from me.
It sucks (for lack of a better word) because the shooter took something not only from Fisher and myself, but from our whole community. We met lots of very nice people there. We would talk about ospreys, camera gear, where they were from, as many would come from out of town for the softball tournaments that are often held there. They would also share with us their wildlife experiences. One person said, "I want to be part of your group." We just laughed and said, You are!
This year was the first year an educational program was held in conjunction with banding the chicks. There were many young kids that came to watch and were interested in learning more about ospreys. It was an accessible nest, hands on learning if you will, all for FREE. The ospreys were hurting NO ONE.
What a waste.
Well shooter, guess what. Come next March I will still wait with great anticipation for the phone call. We will still go to the nest site and watch and wait. We will still monitor what goes on there. And hopefully we might get to band there again.
There is no way in hell you will ever take that away from us.
