08/27/2026
Want to see the original Angry Bird? He was fine until he went to the vet and she wrapped his wing lol.
This little guy is an Osprey fledgling. A first for us. This is the 4th Osprey in 10 years. But the first fledgling. One way you can tell his age is by his eye color. Brown when hatched, then changing to red, then to a beautiful yellow when he's an adult. His are brown with a hint of red.
Here's his story. We received a call from the Monroe County Sheriffs Department and then a call from Lisa, a concerned citizen. Lots of help with catching and transporting this Osprey to me in the middle of a raging thunderstorm (thanks Scott).
I was a bit surprised when I opened the box and found I was looking at an Osprey. The first call came in as an eagle, then a hawk, then a Coopers Hawk. I didnt really know what to expect, but an Osprey never crossed my mind! The next thing I saw was his left wing was fully extended and pointing due West. Straight out and not bending. I thought oh no, dislocated shoulder. Well, I was close, xray showed dislocated elbow. He was given pain medication last night to keep him comfortable until I could get him to the vet.
The vet reset the elbow and he is wrapped for 10 days. We will re-evaluate after 10 days. We have to be very careful because the wing could "freeze" into place. Then he will never fly. And the vet did say today that there is no guarantee that he will fly at all. But he deserves a chance. That what we do, try to give second chances.
Osprey are still pretty rare in Indiana. This guy came from the Monroe Lake area. It's the exact same area the adult Osprey, we helped named Penguin, came from in early summer. How cool if this is his offspring. The timing is right, but of course we will never know.
I'm waiting on the xray to share with you. I'll post it when it arrives.
Osprey are very very hard to rehab. They ONLY eat fish. And they prefer live fish. They are very fussy about the type, placement, and size of the fish. They will literally starve themselves to death with a fish laying in plain view. They are also very high strung, nervous birds. They will die from stress.
As always, we will do our absolute best for this guy. Fingers crossed it will be enough.
Thank you to all who helped. Teamwork makes the dream work!🙂
