The Challenge of Living In Harmony With Wildlife

The only new admission this week was an adult female Osprey that had been electrocuted. Damage to her feathers and feet was too extensive to repair and she was euthanized. Osprey  build their nests on the tops of snags. Power poles can look like snags. When they try to build a nest on the cross arms of the pole the result can be electrocution. The birds sometimes survive, but are usually too damaged to recover.

Power providers will try and discourage Osprey from building a nest on a power pole, but the birds can be very determined. The most effective solution is to provide an alternative nest platform on a nearby pole. If the platform is higher than the nest, they will usually rebuild their nest on the higher platform if the power company removes the first nest. 

Great Horned Owl nestling  24-047 from La Grande tested negative for avian influenza and was placed in the nest box with nestling 24-030.

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