On July 23, Natalie Parent and her husband, Ed, set out on a pontoon boat trip with a group of friends on Shuswap Lake, near Salmon Arm, B.C. During their excursion, they made a new friend — after an unexpected rescue mission.
Natalie says the 1.8-kilogram osprey, boasting a 1.5-metre wingspan, had been struggling in the water — the same spot from which a bald eagle had flown away. “[The osprey] didn’t get out of the water at all — actually, when we got closer, it almost seemed as if he was trying to swim towards the boat to get some safety,” she told host Chris Walker on CBC’s Daybreak South.
After watching the osprey struggle for about 15 minutes, Ed decided to take action, jumping into the water armed with a pool noodle and a towel. “When I did approach the bird, he didn’t struggle — he knew he was being rescued, and he pulled up his wings,” Ed said on Daybreak South. “He looked at me in the face. My face was inches away from his face — he could have pecked at me, and he didn’t. He just wanted to be rescued.
