Dunedin Golf Club Outing Results in Bizarre Osprey Encounter

A normal Sunday outing turned into a bizarre animal encounter for three ladies at Dunedin Golf Club recently. 

While on the fairway of the ninth hole, Barb Lehr, Linda Lidster and Dee Montessi happened upon a distressed osprey that did not move as they approached.

The women carefully walked closer to the bird, eventually close enough to see into its green eyes. It tried to fly, but could only get a few feet off the ground, Lehr recounted in an email to Ron Randolph, Dunedin Golf Club's general manager. 

That's when the ladies noticed "on one claw was a fairly large dead fish. The osprey had dug the claw into the fish so hard that it could not remove the claw."  

Fearing that the fish was too heavy or somehow causing the osprey distress, the ladies sprung into action.

Without touching the osprey, Lehr said, "I took a club and put the butt end of the club on one end of the fish," while Lidster "held down the fish with her foot." The women were able to pin the fish to the ground while the osprey freed itself.

Most fish that ospreys catch weigh half a pound, according to Hawk Mountain, a leading bird of prey science research and conservation group. Osprey have been drowned from trying to carry fish too large for them, Hawk Mountain reports. An osprey's hunting proficiency depends on its age, the organization says.

Lehr said the osprey's mate was in nest nearby and when the birds were reunited, they flew by chirping several times.

"We got chills thinking the osprey was showing gratitude," she said. 

It's a golf outing the ladies won't soon forget. And apparently, neither will the ospreys.

"Perhaps it is my imagination," Lehr told Patch, "but each time I play that hole, the two ospreys seem to circle us and give us tweets. No kidding!"