If you enjoy watching birds of prey, Jonathan Hunt promises you’ll have a great experience at Wasatch Mountain State Park. He’s the park manager.
"If you bring your kids or if you come fishing at our pond, here behind the visitor center at Wasatch State Park, you're going to see these osprey," he said. "They swoop down and catch fish daily — I mean multiple fish per day. It is quite the thing to see."
But early in the morning on Saturday, July 1, a group of golfers caught sight of an osprey in a less than majestic situation.
"They noticed that this osprey was caught up in some fishing line," he said "So they called and said, ‘What can you do to help save this osprey?’”
Hunt’s best guess is that the osprey had attempted to steal a fish that was attached to that fishing line.
"I don't know exactly what happened, but this poor osprey was sure caught up in that line," he said. "And as they struggled to release themself, they just get tangled worse and worse."
Fortunately, the park has a naturalist on staff, Kathy Donnell, who has years of experience raising raptors.
"She was able to put some thick gloves on, go in there and calm the bird down and then and then cut the fishing line off of it.," Hunt said.
He said the bird didn’t look 100% healthy, but healthy enough to allow it to rehab in the wild — which is always preferable to taking it to a refuge of some kind.
"The bird looked awful tired and scared, but not not injured enough that we were overly concerned," Hunt said. "So once it was cut free, the bird on its own took off flying and flew away really well."
To help prevent a similar situation in the future, he encouraged visitors to use the dumpsters on site to dispose of any garbage, as well as the recycling tubes set aside for fishing lines.
"Sometimes you get a fishing line caught, so you're casting out and it gets snagged," he said. "You can't always retrieve all of your fishing line, but we want you to do your best to leave it clean."
Hunt said it’s not common to find raptors entangled in fishing lines at the park, and he doesn’t expect to see it happen again this year.
"People take very good care of the state park," he said. "We have a very good clientele that cares about nature. So we're lucky in that the animals here are very wild, and seem very healthy."
Hunt says visitors to the state park who encounter wildlife in distress or are otherwise acting abnormally are encouraged to call the park staff, who are on site and available seven days a week.
