I dunno how to say this, but it happened again. Today while with a student at Westerly Rhode Island, we had landed and were on the roll out. Having the just dropped the nose we saw 3 figures appear - Ospreys. They had come down from their perch and chilled on the runway. The one on the far left bugged to the left - the 2 on the right however were not so lucky...
There was nothing we could do. If we swerved right we would've nailed one dead on in the propeller and killed him for sure. If we went left we would've taken the other 2 out. The one on the left was hit by the wing and more or less bounced off with a broken wing. The one on the right was clipped by the descending blade of the propeller. I wasn't in a good mood - nor was my student since it was his first.
On the brightside, both Ospreys survived the incident and were picked up by a recovery/rehab expert. Assuming they survive the next couple of days, the one who has a good wing (on the left) will likely return to flying. The one on the right who lost his wing will likely be cared for by one of those conservationists who takes injured animals to schools for education and the sort.
My student and I will likely be visiting them in the facility in the next coming weeks to check their progress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqndvrhoxwI
