MISSOULA — Rescue efforts are underway to find and help osprey hatchings that were blown out of their nests after last week’s storms in Missoula.
MTN talked with Raptor View Research Institute executive director Rob Domenech who says 16 osprey hatchings that were between four and five weeks old were killed.
Three baby osprey got blown out and two died of a nest at Rock Creek but researchers were able to take a baby from the Milltown nest who fell out of that nest and place it with the Rock Creek nest, where the female adult has essentially adopted that chick.
The nests at McCormick Park and Tower Street made it through and Iris and her family made it through fine with their nest near Missoula College.
But raptor biologists are still in "full on" rescue mode to find any displaced or injured chicks. Wild Skies Raptor Center will be doing surgery to help the injured birds they were able to find.
Domenech says they have never had a catastrophic event like this, which came after weeks of intense heat, which was also hard on the birds.
It was tough to find bucket trucks to get to the nests but following the storm, but Able Tree Service stepped in to help.
We'll keep you updated on the status of our area osprey and efforts to find and rescue them.
