THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 12, 1995 TAG: 9507110132
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
A young osprey, pinned in its nest by fishing line, was untangled recently by Jim Hook, a volunteer with the Wildlife Society of Virginia Beach.
The nest is on a navigational buoy at the Narrows just off the beach at the end of 64th Street in First Landing/Seashore State Park, a popular fishing spot. An angler casting from the beach had not only entangled the youngster but also its parent, Hook said.
``He evidently caught the mother in flight,'' Hook said. ``And she pulled loose and was sitting up in a tree when I got there.''
The youngster, one of three in the nest, had the line through its wing feathers. Somehow the line had wrapped over the nest and, in essence, tied the baby down.
Hook, who lives on the water across the Narrows from the park, took his boat over to the buoy where he tied up and then climbed up to the nest. The youngsters, three-fourths grown, were large enough to be rising up in the nest and exercising their wings. By throwing a cloth over the pinned bird, Hook was able to calm it down and free its wings.
The mother had her eye on the whole process, he said. As Hook got down, she flew from the tree and circled over her nest.
``I wish you could see it,'' Hook said. ``The whole nest is a mass of nylon line of different colors.''
He believes that some of the line was brought to the nest by the parent birds who will build a nest of anything they can find, from sticks to old tennis shoes. But Hook also thinks other pieces of line were cast there either on purpose or inadvertently by fishermen on the beach.
``I am so discouraged about these people,'' Hook said. ``A lot of them don't care. They just cast out over the osprey.''
Hook thinks a sign should be posted on the beach warning fishermen and others that it is against the law to disturb nesting birds of prey.
TWO YOUNG OSPREY ORPHANS ALSO BENEFITED from the efforts of Jim Hook and raptor expert Reese Lukei. It appeared the two birds, found on the Peninsula, had fallen from their nests and washed ashore, Lukei said. They ended up at an emergency animal clinic in Newport News, and Lukei was notified.
Hook drove to the Peninsula to pick them up. Then Lukei and Hook, with the help of Dan and David Arris, placed the birds in active nests on the Lynnhaven River. The birds' foster parents took to them right away.
``They adjusted immediately,'' Lukei said. ``And both have flown the coop already, which must have meant they were well fed on the nest.''
A HANDFUL OF BABY ROBINS survived a heavy downpour recently, thanks to the warm hands and ingenuity of Robert Hagerty. Hagerty, who lives in Plantation Cove, found the tiny babies on the ground, their nest ruined, early one morning after a heavy rain.
``There was hardly a feather on them,'' Hagerty said.
He created a new nest out of the black plastic from the bottom of a Pepsi bottle. The basket-shaped bottoms already have holes in them that could serve as drain holes, Hagerty noted. He added some moss that his wife uses for floral decorations to the container. Then he tied the make-shift home to a branch of the crape myrtle tree where the old nest had been.
He had to hold the lethargic babies in his hands for about an hour for them to warm up. ``They started twitching around and opening their mouths,'' he said.
Hagerty put the birds in their new nest, and mom and dad went right back on the job, feeding the youngsters as though they hadn't missed a beat.
P.S. A PROGRAM OF ENGLISH HANDBELLS, accompanied by harpsichord and flute, will be presented at 2 p.m. July 16 at historic Lynnhaven House on Wishart Road. Admission is $4 and reservations are required.
Call 456-0351 or 481-2145. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
An osprey, nesting on a navigational buoy off 64th Street, was freed
from fishing line by Jim Hook, a Wildlife Society volunteer.
by CNB