The Saga Continues for Bailey, the Beleaguered Hog Island Osprey

After surviving owl, wasp, and eagle attacks, the tough young bird is mending an injured wing at an 约炮视频 rehab center in Florida.

Most northern-dwelling Ospreys use some combination of muscle power, hot-air currents, and winds to wing down to the tropics every winter. Bailey, on the other hand, took an easier route: She caught a commercial flight to Orlando.

Bailey, as regular 约炮视频 readers and explore.org viewers may remember, is this year's only surviving chick from beloved Osprey couple Rachel and Steve. This summer, followers watched as a Great Horned Owl carried away both of her siblings on , Maine. The raptor tried to kill Bailey, too, but a watchful Rachel thwarted the attack. A few weeks later, a swarm of wasps stung the two-month-old until she leapt from the nest, flapping her immature wings to break the fall.

Unable to return to the nest, Bailey was relocated to a new platform, where she eventually fledged. But life didn't get any easier for the young bird. On September 14, she was ambushed twice by Bald Eagles鈥攁 species with a history of preying on Hog Island Ospreys. After the attacks the island's staff found her in the water with puncture wounds and transported her to , a rehabilitation center in Freedom, Maine. The wounds healed quickly, but X-rays revealed that Bailey had suffered a fractured ulna in her right wing weeks earlier, possibly from the owl attack. Although she'd been getting by on the island, her injured wing had a noticeable droop, and tackling a thousands-mile-long migration would require her full strength.

Avian Haven staff bound her wing to give it time to heal, and she began a slow recovery. But keeping an Osprey in an outdoor enclosure through the Maine winter 鈥渏ust wasn鈥檛 going to be feasible,鈥 Diane Winn, the center's executive director, says. So, on November 9, Bailey made her first fall migration in style: on a nonstop flight out of Boston鈥攁nd not a moment too soon. 鈥淲e got her out of here two days before a cold snap,鈥 Winn says.

Bailey鈥檚 destination was the in Maitland, Florida, where she became the 799th raptor patient of the year. She was placed in an outdoor enclosure with Burn, an Osprey who singed his wings in April flying through . The 1,375-square-foot shared space gives the birds plenty of room for exercise: 鈥淭hey can literally do laps in it,鈥 says Dianna Flynt, rehabilitation supervisor at the center.

The calisthenics seem to be helping Bailey recover; on Monday, she flew up to the highest perch in her 15-foot-high enclosure, which Flynt says is a good sign of progress. It鈥檚 not yet clear if the bird will ever return to the wild, but the center recently freed another Osprey with a similar injury after a four-month rehabilitation. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a good sign that Bailey has a chance,鈥 Flynt says.

If Bailey regains enough strength for life in the wild, Flynt and team plan to release her along Florida鈥檚 Atlantic shoreline with a color-coded band to make her easy to identify. Whether she'll head back to Maine, though, is hard to say. 鈥淢y hunch is that Bailey will remember the Maine coast and return there eventually if she has the opportunity, but that is not certain because she did not make the flight to Florida on her own,鈥 says Steve Kress, who works on Hog Island and is 约炮视频's vice president of conservation and director of the seabird restoration program. 鈥淎s kin to Rachel and Steve, she comes from a strong and capable family, and I hope she makes it back to Maine to contribute to the future of our local population.鈥

For now, Bailey鈥檚 many fans are making sure she gets the help she needs to heal. At least 85 people have at Avian Haven, her flight south, and the fresh catch that's delivered to her enclosure daily in Florida. 鈥淲e want to keep her as wild as possible,鈥 Flynt says. 鈥淭his pays the fish bill.鈥

*** 

约炮视频 is a nonprofit working to save birds and they places they need. To support our conservation efforts, .