A young osprey that got snagged in wire atop an 85-foot-tall light pole at Mesa College yesterday was rescued after dangling upside down for hours.
JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune
Although this effort by SDG&E crewman Jason Digenan and Chuck Traisi of the Fund for Animals Wildlife Rehabilitation Center to free an osprey trapped at Mesa College was unsuccessful yesterday, two SDG&E line workers later were able to rescue the bird.
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The trapped bird of prey was freed by utility workers and a wildlife rescue expert about 11:15 a.m. It suffered a badly fractured leg and was taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Ramona for treatment.
It was spotted by a gardener arriving for work about 6 a.m. at the Kearny Mesa community college campus.
College employees said the bird had started flying only a week or two ago. It was one of the latest hatched at the campus, which erected a man-made platform for the birds' nest above its football field lights about five or six years ago.
“If this bird makes it, it will be released here, where it came from,” said Chuck Traisi, who operates the Fund for Animals Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Ramona.
Traisi said the bird was “unmercifully stuck” between two pieces of metal, with one talon stuck in wire mesh.
JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune
The osprey suffered a badly fractured leg and was taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Ramona for treatment.
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“It was not going to get out on his own. He was going to die up there” if not rescued, he said.
As people gathered on the soccer field to come up with a rescue plan, two other ospreys flew by and called out to the injured bird.
College officials spent much of the morning calling agencies to try to get the bird freed. San Diego firefighters, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. crews, animal control officers and campus police officers were among those who were called.
At one point, San Diego firefighters considered bringing a truck equipped with a 105-foot ladder onto the soccer field to try to free the bird. They decided against it after consulting with SDG&E officials and county Animal Services employees, fire Capt. James Strawn said.
“SDG&E has a better piece of equipment for the task,” Strawn said. “We could just go up and cut it loose and the bird might fall 80 feet.”
It was better to send up a wildlife rescue expert or veterinarian to help release the bird, he said.
Crews from SDG&E backed a 98,000-pound bucket truck to the light pole, put a safety harness on Traisi and sent him up to the top of the light pole. The equipment extended about 80 feet – just tall enough to allow Traisi to grab one of the bird's wings, but not high enough to allow him to release its stuck leg.
So two SDG&E line workers, Scott Bryan and John Hotta, quickly climbed up the pole and out onto a work platform, above where the bird was trapped, and used wire cutters to bend the metal and free the bird.
Ospreys, which are listed by the state as a species of special concern, are making a comeback in the county and can be seen hunting fish in Mission Bay, along the San Diego River and in local lagoons and lakes.
Karen Kucher: (619) 293-1350; karen.kucher@uniontrib.com
