Hayden man cited for killing osprey

HAYDEN — A Hayden man was recently cited by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for allegedly killing an osprey. 

TJ Ross, Fish and Game spokesman for the Panhandle Region, said the osprey is a protected bird of prey and it is illegal to harm them. 

He said Fish and Game received a tip on its Citizens Against Poaching hotline, investigated the incident that took place June 14 outside a home on Avondale Golf Course, and cited the man. 

He declined to release the man’s name.  

Jane Veltkamp of Birds of Prey Northwest based in St. Maries was called in to assess the scene Thursday. She said a chick in the nest of the shot osprey was dead and an egg never hatched.

“A lot of damage done from one poacher,” she said Friday.

Veltkamp said the nest was about 100-feet high in a tree in the yard of the man who shot the osprey. A drone was used to look inside it.

She said the osprey was shot with a pellet gun.

Veltkamp said it was likely the female osprey that was killed, as the female stays close to the nest to care for the young while the male defends the nest, does the hunting and brings back food for the family.

“Newborn chicks cannot survive without parental incubation,” she said, adding the egg couldn't hatch without the mom there to keep it warm. She noted overnight temperatures dropped into the low 40s earlier this week.

"It couldn't survive in that cold," Veltkamp said.

A person who lives in the area, but asked to remain anonymous, said some residents were upset by the killing of the osprey that had lived there with a mate for several years.

It was not known why the man shot the osprey.

“It's sad people have no regard for life, especially with this species,” Veltkamp said. 

She said had the chick been alive when she checked on it, they could have removed it, taken it to their aviary in St. Maries, cared for it until it was mature enough to survive on its own and returned it to the wild. 

She said it’s likely the male osprey will leave the nest and try to find a new home. 

“His whole family is dead,” Veltkamp said. 

She said the osprey was once critically endangered, a victim of DDT, an insecticide, that was used extensively before it was banned in 1972. Since, its population has bounced back, but not quickly, Veltkamp said.

“It took 50 years to restore,” she said. “People have no business shooting these protected species."

Veltkamp said that today, the Coeur d’Alene and Pend Oreille basins have one of the largest osprey nesting populations west of the Rocky Mountains thanks to abundant wetlands and shallow lakes.

She said osprey are bioindicators that reflect the health of the environment.

“They really are the canary in the mine," Veltkamp said. "They're very important to us."