By Rick Barbero, The Register-Herald
GAULEY BRIDGE, W.Va. — A young osprey discovered by an area photographer has gotten a second chance in the wild after its mother was found to be dead in the nest in Gauley Bridge.
Photographer Kim Ayers notified Three Rivers Avian Center (TRAC) on June 7 that a female osprey appeared to be dead in the nest on top of the railroad trestle at Gauley Bridge, Executive Director of Three River Avian Center Wendy Perrone.
”We would not be able to get there before dark, so we started working the phones to find a volunteer who was closer. Matt Carpenter, an experienced climber, volunteered to come from Fayetteville and rescue the chicks,” Perrone said.
Carpenter and two friends, Lindsay Hermanns, a wildlife biologist, and Amber Jaxon joined in the rescue effort. The chicks were rescued by 8:30 p.m., that evening. The mother osprey had evidently been dead for a few days.
Kim Ayers joined Carpenter and his friends to meet Perrone and Three Rivers Avian Center’s Education Director Ron Perrone at 9:30 p.m., in Beckley, and the chicks were brought to TRAC. Perrone said the chicks spent their time there being fed donated culled fish from the WV DNR’s Tate Lohr Fish Hatchery in Oakvale.
