Peggy Coontz of the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center breathed a sigh of relief as the Osprey she and her team had been rehabilitating for the last 4 months soared off in beautiful flight from Wayside Farm on the Plains Road near Middleburg last Saturday afternoon. Terri Tokarczyk, who had originally discovered the bird in terrible shape on the same farm while walking her dogs this spring, did the final "Toss".

"You never know how smoothly these things will go!" said Peggy. "This bird was horribly emaciated, suffering from a high level of parasites in his blood and possible lead poisoning. He certainly wouldn't have made it if it weren't for Terri and the Fazakerleys who own Wayside Farm. He was "down" and had to be tube fed for quite some time. It was a major milestone when he finally started eating on his own."

"We force fed him fish once the tube feeding was over. It was not easy! He hated us and we weren't too happy with him either! But we persisted. He had a total of 6 caregivers while he was in residence at the center. After about 3 months he began to fly fairly well in his large flight cage. He had to rebuild his muscles and get strong again. In the fourth month he finally was able to "hover". The Osprey is one of only three birds of prey that can do that," said Peggy.

The Blue Ridge Wildlife Center was founded by Veterinarian Dr. Belinda Burwell in 2004. Dr. Burwell brought Peggy Coontz on board from doing similar work in Colorado.

"We're a private non-profit," explained Peggy. "We can only survive on donations of both money and time. It takes an army of volunteers. We estimate that we need approximately $100 per animal to keep our heads above water. Last year we took in a total of 629 animals. This year we're up to 658 already."

For more information go to www.blueridgewildlife.org