Last weekend, Jessica Salmons and a few companions were boating on a lake in Clarksville, Virginia, when the easygoing outing took a dramatic turn.
While cruising the lake, far from shore, the group spotted someone floating helplessly in the water — an osprey. How the large bird of prey had ended up there is anyone’s guess, but it seemed she stood little chance of making it back to dry land on her own.
“We saw it in the middle of the lake trying to swim to shore,” Salmons wrote in a post. “We called our local wildlife authority to see what we could do to help.”
That’s when one of the boaters, Gavin, decided to take action — leaping into the water to save the bird’s life.
Here’s video of that dramatic rescue:
Though the osprey appeared to resist Gavin’s efforts at first, he eventually seemed to understand that his intention was to help.
And after several tense minutes, the bird was ultimately delivered safely to shore. Though ospreys are known to briefly enter the water to catch prey, this one had evidently become too waterlogged to be able to fly away.
A fellow Good Samaritan near the edge of the water also stepped in to help, as seen in part 2 of the rescue:
The video ends before the situation is fully resolved, but the osprey was finally safe from drowning. With any luck, after settling on the shore to dry his wings, the osprey was able to fly away.
Salmons confirmed in a comment on her video that the osprey was OK.
This likely wasn’t the sort of excitement Salmons and her companions had been planning for that day, but thanks to them, a life was saved.