Eagle cam watchers mourn for Ozzie
How much did people care about Ozzie the Internet eagle?
Since the 2012-13 nesting season, tens of millions of people have watched Ozzie and mate Harriet raise their chicks, as Southwest Florida Eagle Cam streamed live 24-hour coverage from their nest on the property of Dick Pritchett Real Estate in North Fort Myers.
Wednesday morning, within an hour of the official announcement that Ozzie had died Tuesday night, more than 600 people had posted comments on the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife Facebook page, and more than 1,000 had posted on the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam Facebook page.
Ozzie fans wrote that they were in shock, saddened, in tears and heartbroken; many exhorted Ozzie to "fly free" and "soar high"; several said Ozzie's death was "a tragedy."
"This is definitely more than the passing of an eagle," Andy Pritchett said. "It hits home. We were very invested in it, with our time and efforts. It was something we were close to as a family. It's been a family project. Obviously, Ozzie and Harriet were the stars of the show, and we had a definite emotional attachment."
Ozzie the famous eagle back in the hospital
In 1990, an eagle pair assumed to be Ozzie and Harriet were documented nesting in a tree on Donald Road in North Fort Myers.
That tree died in 2003, and Ozzie and Harriet started nesting on the Pritchett property in 2006.
To date, Eagle Cam watchers have seen three chicks fledge and one die.
In March 2015, Ozzie was badly injured, possibly by a car, in Fort Myers and spent three months in rehabilitation at CROW.
During his recovery, Eagle Cam got 200,000 hits a day.
He was released June 17 at the Pritchett property, but, although bald eagles mate for life, all was not domestic bliss for Ozzie and Harriet: On Sept. 20, Ozzie was photographed fighting with another male eagle, probably a rival for Harriet's affections.
On Sunday, Ozzie was found in a North Fort Myers backyard, injured and unable to fly.
CROW volunteers took him to the clinic, where veterinarians discovered he had numerous lacerations and a broken toe in each foot (a large wound on the bird's right hip was full of maggots).
Some of the lacerations and the broken toes were assumed to be the result of Ozzie's fight with the rival eagle; some lacerations were from a recent entanglement in barbwire.
Because some of wounds were several days old, Ozzie had developed a bacterial blood infection.
During surgery Monday morning, hospital director and veterinarian Heather Barron said Ozzie would "probably be fine."
But a press release from CROW on Wednesday morning announced that Ozzie had died the previous night "due to complications from his recent injuries." The release also stated, "CROW hospital staff will not be available for interviews today. Ozzie was a beloved patient and this is a difficult time for staff ... that had spent countless hours caring for him."
Avid Eagle Cam watcher Pam Swails, of Cape Coral, is also a frequent visitor of Ozzie and Harriet's nest.
"It's horrible," she said about Ozzie's death. "It's a shame. (On Tuesday), everything sounded like everything was going to be cool. Man, what a bummer. I can't believe it. When that camera goes on, I'm on it 24 hours a day. It's the only reason I have a computer."
Former WINK-TV meteorologist Katie Walls became an Ozzie and Harriet fan while she was living in Fort Myers and continued to follow the pair when she moved to Atlanta to work for WSB-TV.
"I'm devastated, absolutely," she said. "When you watch a family of eagles the way I have, it's just really sad. People feel they've watch them grow as a family as they've raised eaglets and lost eaglets, so they be come part of the family.
"But I wouldn't call Ozzie's death a tragedy. He would have died of his wounds from the fight with the other eagle. It's the circle of life."
Despite Ozzie's death, Eagle Cam will continue streaming from the nest, Pritchett said.
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