Monday evening I got home from work around 1830. It had been raining on and off all day and I could see some pretty dark clouds approaching from the south-west as I walked down the dock. When I get aboard I find that the holding tank needs to be pumped out. We have contracted with a service to do this every other week and that's worked out real nice but this time we need to take care of it ourselves. No problem, we just need to beat that storm that's drifting our way.
In record time we get the boat underway and head over to "C" dock. As we pull up alongside we notice a commotion on the dock. There's a big old bird dancing around with his wings spread out. As we tie up the bird backs away and falls off the dock into the water. We race over to see what he's doing and it's obvious this guy is gonna drown if we don't do something. Cheri grabs a net from our boat and angles it down towards the bird who grabs onto the rim and hangs on for dear life. We pull him back up on the dock and set the net down and back away real slowly. This bird is an adult Osprey with a wingspan of about 5' and talons as long as my fingers. Yowza! The bird is pretty freaked out and screams and dances around, eventually falling back in the water. We fish him out again and this time he just stands there, screeching with his wings spread out.
So now what do we do? His movements make me think that his right wing is injured because he keeps holding the one wing out and folding up the other. Cheri goes down below and starts making phone calls to see if she can get a Vet to come out and help. No luck there but she eventually gets hold of the Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources and they direct her to a raptor rescue lady (chick?) down in Solomons Island, about 40 miles away. She can't come up tonight and asks us to put the bird in a box and keep it for her. What? Put this monster with 4" claws in a box? Yikes!
Cheri wanders off looking for a box and I go back and take care of the boat. The bird is only about 15' away while I'm working on the boat so I move around very slowly so I don't frighten him. I still hafta get the holding tank pumped out before this storm hits and it's now getting dark too. I finish up just as Cheri returns with a big box which she sets down beside the Osprey. By now there's another boater, an old English dude with lots of suggestions and no intentions of assistance, and Miguel, the 6'6" security guard who also has no intention of going near the bird. Cheri picks up the net, which the Osprey is still hanging onto and sets him down in the box. I throw a towel over his head and he instantly goes quiet and stops moving around. This is good but his gigantic wings are still sticking out. Cheri takes one and gently folds it into the box and I do the same with the other. As I push his wing into the box I picture his big old beak ripping the flesh off my hand but the bird just quietly sits there under the towel. This is much easier than I ever woulda imagined.
We can't put the bird on our boat because Bella would just go nuts and then the Osprey would probably eat her. There's already been enough excitement for one night. We pick up the box and put it in a cart. Miguel offers to take the cart down by the office for us so we could get La Vida Dulce back to her slip. Cheri writes up a note and pins it to the towel: "Injured Osprey in box". Yeah, that's a good idea. Can you imagine finding a box on your doorstep, lifting the towel and finding this gigantic bird of prey right in your face? She also included some info about it being picked up in the morning. Miguel found a good safe place for the cart under the stairs where it'd be protected from the storm and out of the way of critters.
I checked on the bird the next morning and he was doing fine. The rescue chick picked him up at 0900. Turns out she's related to one of the gals in the marina office. Small world. Actually, out here in the sticks, probably everybody is related in one way or another.
So, this isn't the first time Cheri has been involved with big birds and strange animals. She has a way with critters and they really respond to her. She's turned Bella into a circus dog. Down in Mexico she inched her way up to a Pelican on the beach and got within about 6" of it before it decided she was a nuisance. Throughout her life she's had all sorts of unusual pets, including a 6' Boa that got away from her when she was living in an apartment building and didn't show up for six months. During that time there were numerous reports of missing pets and small children. She's also had horses, Mynah Birds, Hermit Crabs and Koi as well as cats and dogs. Probably a lot more that I just can't remember right now.
I guess I might as well get used to this.
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