Wildlife officials are asking for help from anyone with information about the shooting of an osprey found near Double Bluff Park last week.

The bird was discovered Wednesday, Aug. 16 about one-half mile northeast of Double Bluff Beach on Double Bluff Road by a passerby who took it to Useless Bay Animal Clinic in Freeland.

The adult female bird was seriously injured from shotgun wounds and had to be euthanized by veterinarian David Parent.

Washington State Fish and Wildlife Enforcement officer Jeff Lee said his office is looking for information about the incident.

“We are hoping for some help locating witnesses to the incident. Maybe someone was in the area, heard the shots or saw someone with a shotgun,” Lee said.

The osprey, a raptor who feeds on fish, is protected by both state and federal regulations.

The wounded bird was found in a driveway near the beach. A concerned citizen picked up the bird and took it to the clinic Wednesday evening.

Parent was already at his clinic treating a barred owl brought in by a ranger from South Whidbey State Park.

The owl, stunned when it was struck by a car, was released back into the park.

But the adult osprey wasn’t so lucky.

“We found only two pellets, but there was a bad break in the bird’s wing,” Parent said. “A second pellet was lodged in its brain, probably shot through the eye.”

“Saving her would have been a long shot. The pellet in the forearm was in a bad place,” he said.

There are no known osprey nests in the Double Bluff region, but according to wildlife officials, there are nests within a 4-mile radius, which is easily in their hunting range.

Migratory osprey call South Whidbey home from April to September. Many return to the same nests year after year.

Since it’s so late in the season, if the bird had fledglings they were probably ready to leave the nest.

“Even if they weren’t quite ready, the male will feed any young left at the nest,” Parent said.

Special Agent Paul Weyland from the Bellingham office of the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife said his office doesn’t hear of many osprey shootings.

“People are more environmentally conscious and respectful of wildlife here,” Weyland said.

Weyland said his office offers a reward for the arrest and conviction of anyone who harms birds, including osprey,

that are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Several mating pairs of osprey seasonally call South Whidbey home. They return year after year to nest and raise their young before the long winter flight to Mexico and Central America.

Mating pairs have nested for several years on a light tower above the South Whidbey High School track and off Fish Road in Freeland. Several years ago, school district personnel removed the high school nest only to have the birds return and rebuild it.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it unlawful for anyone to kill, capture, collect, possess, buy, sell, trade, ship, import or export any migratory bird, including feathers, bird parts, nests or eggs. The act restricts the taking, killing, possession, transportation, and importation of migratory birds, their eggs, parts and nests.

According to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, osprey nests may not be disturbed between April 1 and Sept. 15.

The most critical period for the birds is the three months between April 1 and June 30, when the birds raise their chicks to the point at which they can fly and begin hunting for themselves.

Gayle Saran can be reached at 221-5300 or gsaran@southwhidbeyrecord.com