B.C. couple stages dramatic rescue for drowning osprey

Ed Parent swims a wounded osprey to safety. (Courtesy: Natalie Parent)

Natalie and Ed Parent were enjoying a day out with friends on Shuswap Lake in late July when they noticed something in the water from their pontoon boat.

It was an eagle, bobbing up and down in the water. The Parents are no strangers to what they call “adventures”—like when they rescued a group of ducklings from under a grate on Highway 1—as volunteers for a local animal rescue society and owners of a pet supply store in Salmon Arm.

So the couple watched the eagle struggle to get out of the lake, prepared to jump into action, but it eventually flew away.

That’s when they noticed an osprey, which was not able to get out of the water.

“He was drowning, he was really struggling,” Natalie recounted to CTV News Tuesday.

The pair quickly came up with a plan to retrieve the large bird of prey, which Natalie said weighed about four pounds and had a five-foot wingspan.

“There was no way we were going to let that poor guy drown in the middle of the lake,” she said.

Ed jumped into the water, armed with a pool noodle and a towel to wrap around the bird so its huge talons didn’t “take out his eyeballs.”

The osprey didn’t struggle or lash out at Ed.

“This bird was like ‘OK, just save me,’” Natalie remembers.

Ed swam the bird back to the boat, only receiving a minor scratch. When they got it on board, the group realized it was seriously injured.

The osprey had a large wound under one of his wings.

“He was in bad shape,” Natalie said. She believes the osprey and the eagle had gotten into a fight.

Lucky the osprey was put in a cage before being transported to the BC Wildlife Park. (Courtesy: Natalie Parent) On the boat, “he just laid there, the poor guy,” she recalls. “He was tired and in shock.”

They named the bird Lucky, because “he was pretty darn lucky that we even saw him and could help him,” Natalie said, adding that if it weren’t for the eagle, Lucky wouldn’t have been spotted.

The Parents called their friend at Shuswap Paws Rescue Society, who brought a big cage and gloves to the wharf.

Lucky was then driven to the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops for rehabilitation. Natalie wasn’t sure Lucky would make it, but true to his name, he survived the trip.

“We call him Scrappy,” said Tracy Reynolds, the care manager at BC Wildlife Park, which is caring for the osprey. She said the two birds likely got in a tussle over fish or territory.

Reynolds said the osprey was given two layers of stitches for a deep laceration, and that he has “quite a lot of bruising.” The bird was also put on antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory.

It’s been just over two weeks since Lucky was brought to the rehabilitation centre, and he’s “doing really, really well,” Reynolds said.

She said the bird likely would not have survived if he didn’t receive care. But thanks to Natalie and Ed, Lucky is on the mend and will be ready to be released in about a week.

Reynolds said she’ll invite the couple to watch their new friend’s release.

“We're lucky also, that we were there and we got to be a part of it,” Natalie said. “When you get to see a big bird like that, it’s very special. It’s been very rewarding.”