Sometimes in life you need a bit of luck. A couple of years back there was an Osprey at Kingscliff who managed to get tangled in fishing line. This unfortunately happens from time to time, and on this occasion the line was wrapped around the bird’s wing. Fishing line wrapped around the wing is no small matter as this usually impedes the bird catching fish which, in turn, leads to increasing exhaustion, and often death. But this particular Osprey has been named ‘Lucky’ as, well, he got lucky.
The image accompanying this text is a closeup of Lucky launching himself to go fishing. This is the first in a series of images taken by Lawrie Garriock showing Lucky’s difficult fishing trip.
Lucky dove into the water to catch a fish but began having problems. Getting back out of the water with the fish was proving difficult. He was likely weakened from the fishing line wrapped around his wing.
But then things took a turn for the worse for Lucky. A nearby Pelican became aware that Lucky was struggling and spotted an opportunity for an easy meal. The Pelican was a good deal larger than Lucky and, I imagine, somewhat imposing to our unfortunate Osprey. So Lucky had to gather his reserves and make a mighty effort to get away from the Pelican. Eventually he became airborne with his cargo of fish and flew off to consume a well earned meal.
But things were still grim for Lucky as the fishing line around his wing was going nowhere. Lucky became weaker and weaker.
But then his fortunes changed! Lucky was found just in time on Kingscliff beach in a very weakened state. He was taken to the wonderful people at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital where the fishing line was gingerly removed. There is a lot of work involved in nursing a very sick bird back to health and there are no guarantees of success.
But Lucky did make it back to full health, albeit missing a few wing feathers. And he got to home.
Bon Voyage Lucky
