Long Island Proud: Dramatic Osprey Rescue at Sunken Meadow Park

This is a story that makes us all Long Island Proud. It is the story of a successful rescue a trapped Osprey whose foot somehow had become attached in fishing line and dangled from a tree for over 24 hours until someone saw it and called for help. Unfortunately it survived only a few hours after the rescue due to its mangled internal organs. Yet this story shows the grit and determination some Long Islanders have to be creative and take risks to help the wonderful wild birds of Long Island.

It happened in Sunken Meadow State Park in Salonga, New York. It seems a neighbor of the Sunken Meadow Park while looking through an actual telescope saw the troubled osprey and called in that there was “a hanging bird” to the park police. They were stuck on what to do. They contacted Annie McIntyre, Regional Environmental Manager State Parks. Ms. McIntyre then called her friend, Dr. Rebecca Grella, (PhD Ecology and Evolutionary Biologist) who at the time was driving back to Long Island from a weekend in Boston.

Dr. Grella extremely networked into the protectors of the Long Island ecosystem knew what to do. Still while driving she contacted Brendan Dodd, Long Island Arborist and Osprey Whisper dude. He arrived at the scene and put together a plan of action along with Dr. Grella who was now at the site too. The plan was to get up the tree and cut the fishing line and slowly lower the osprey to the ground. The rescue took 4 hours to plan and started at 4pm Sunday July 29, 2018. In the end it was a most valiant and creative effort by Brendan Dodd. The enclosed video was created and provided by Dr. Grella with some assistance from Alex Davis, Drone Pilot and videographer, will show how creative and brave Mr. Dodd truly was in his effort to relieve the osprey of its humiliating pain and suffering. (https://youtu.be/o1MDrLqiinU)

The osprey was taken in by WINNOR for wildlife in need of rescue; in the words of Dr. Grella, “The bird was hanging for two days. It was alive when we took it down. It survived for a few hours but his organs were mangled. He passes away last night” (Sunday night.)

As a message to all of us, Dr. Grella said, “Our ecosystem is fragile. We as humans need to be more aware of the things we carry and leave behind… the poor guy was wrapped up in braided fishing line, I will save it to constantly remind others and me that we need to be more aware of how we can impact the environment."