'He's still alive'

COEUR d’ALENE — When Dave Noss heard the loud and sudden splashing and fighting in the pond just out back of his Best Avenue home, he hurried to see what was happening.

What he saw the afternoon of July 17, he had never seen before.

An osprey was motionless in the water and two adult Canada geese were swimming away.

“I guess he dove too close to this family of geese and two parents of the family attacked him,” Noss said. “They beat the tar out of him.”

A neighbor, Tom Hudson, also hustled out. Both men looked across the pond and saw the osprey, its head in the water and feet up.

A strong wind blew the bird into some cattails on the shoreline. It remained still.

“He looked like he was dead,” Noss said. “We figured he was a goner.”

Just the same, Hudson called Birds of Prey Northwest, a nonprofit that has been rehabilitating injured birds at its St. Maries site for more than 25 years.

He was told if the bird was still alive, they might be able to save it.

Noss eyed the osprey through binoculars. Its head moved.

“He’s still alive,” Noss said.

He knew he had to do something.

He put on gloves and a long-sleeved sweatshirt and slowly swam the 70 feet across the water.

When he reached the osprey, it looked at him, but didn’t move.

Ever so carefully, Noss tucked the bird’s wings in to each side, held it in his hands, rested it on his stomach and began to quietly back float to the other side.

The bird’s beak was inches from his face.

“He was so calm. It was really weird,” Noss said. “I wondered if there was divine intervention going on. He was so good. He didn’t make any sudden moves. He wasn’t fighting. He was just perfect. He made it so easy.”

Hudson watched and waited with a plastic packaging box with a blanket inside.

“I don’t think he could have done a more perfect job making sure the bird understood it wasn’t being attacked,” he said.

They placed the osprey inside the box, put a towel over its head to keep it calm, and Hudson drove it to a veterinarian in Post Falls. The next day, Birds of Prey Northwest picked it up.

Ten days of fluids, antibiotics and a diet of fish helped the 2-and-a-half-pound adult male osprey heal from soft-tissue injuries, but no fractures.

“The geese beat him up pretty bad,” said Birds of Prey Northwest Founding Director Jane Veltkamp.

On Wednesday, with about 15 people watching, Veltkamp released it in Hudson’s backyard.

“A little chunky and out of shape,” she said, laughing.

It didn't show.

The osprey soared upward, flew toward tree tops, then turned, flying back over the cheering adults and children watching below, as if to say thank you. Then, with its 4-foot wing span, it glided away before settling in a tree.

“Look at that,” Veltkamp said. “I’d say he’s flying with purpose.”

Hudson and Noss were pleased.

“Absolutely wonderful,” Noss said.

Hudson is a fifth-generation Idahoan.

“People from Idaho love nature, and we would do whatever we can to help an animal like that," he said.

The men said they commonly see osprey and Canada geese in the half-mile long body of water lined by trees on the south side and yards to the north.

The large family of young and adult geese glide around, while ospreys dive for the carp and largemouth bass, hitting the water at speeds up to 30 mph.

The birds have waterproof feathers, fish hooks for feet and can see underwater.

“They're designed to eat fish,” said Don Veltkamp, Birds of Prey Northwest board chairman.

But it seems this hungry osprey came too close for the comfort of the adult geese that defended their family of about 15.

"Something like this, unprecedented for me," Hudson said.

Noss agreed.

"I've never seen the geese attack an osprey," he said.

"I didn't think they had it in them," Hudson added.

"Well, geese are big, too," Noss answered.

T.J. Ross, regional communications manager, Panhandle Region Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said while it’s unusual, geese could go after an osprey, particularly if they had young with them and perceived a threat.

“Geese are known for being very protective of their young,” he said of the strong, thick-boned birds which mate for life. “They don’t back down from a fight.”

The Veltkamps earlier that day also released another adult osprey at Fernan Lake. It had been hit by a car and required four weeks of rehab.

Jane Veltkamp said its rare to release two adult osprey the same day and credited people who found them with calling Birds of Prey Northwest, which depends on donations.

“They care enough and appreciate a quick response like ours,” she said.

Jane Veltkamp said the osprey is a modern-day conservation success story.

Last year, she and co-author Deborah Lee Rose released a children's book, "Swoop and Soar: How Science Rescued Two Osprey Orphans and Found Them A New Family In The Wild."

The book introduces readers to environmental challenges ospreys face, such as extreme weather, habitat loss and plastic pollution.

It also explains how Veltkamp and others reintroduced the once endangered species after the insecticide DDT nearly wiped them out in the early 1970s.

So today, having two returning to the wild, strong and healthy, was a gift.

"It's a privilege to see this bird now," Jane Veltkamp said.