Osprey homes took a winter beating

As birds return, race is on to replace missing platforms

By Bruce Burdett
Posted 3/18/18

WESTPORT — To spare osprey a most unsettling Westport homecoming, volunteers are hustling to replace large numbers of nesting platforms destroyed by ice, high water and storms over this difficult …

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Osprey homes took a winter beating

As birds return, race is on to replace missing platforms

Posted

WESTPORT — To spare osprey a most unsettling Westport homecoming, volunteers are hustling to replace large numbers of nesting platforms destroyed by ice, high water and storms over this difficult winter.

With the first migrating osprey just now beginning to arrive from the south, this is an urgent mission, said Gina Purtell, sanctuary director for the Audubon Society’s Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Westport.

“I haven’t seen (an osprey) yet but we have reports of sightings from reliable people in the past few days,” she said Monday. These could be ‘Westport osprey’ or they could be passing through but the rest are surely on the way. Typical arrivals tend to happen between March 10 and shortly after March 20 around here.

And without help, these tired birds will arrive to find many of their summer home nesting stands missing.

Earlier in the winter, Ms. Purtell and others began to notice that poles they were accustomed to seeing from places like John Reed Road were missing.

Last weekend they went out for a closer look and their fears were confirmed.

They haven’t checked every place yet but based on what they’ve seen so far Ms. Purtel said she thinks nearly a third of the 80 nesting platforms in the Westport River are missing.

Some have washed up on nearby shores, others are lying where they fell, and most are beyond repair — or so old that repairs aren’t worth it.

They found that fully half of the platforms around Ram Island were washed away; over at Sanford Flat, “we were pretty much cleaned out” with around 14 missing.

Volunteer response

Led by the South Coast Osprey Project, volunteers and companies are donating their talent, labor and resources to make sure the fish hawks find a familiar place to roost

Dick Manchester has built a number of replacement platforms using his superb two-piece method, Ms. Purtell said.

“Friends Academy students are among those using their carpentry skills to build new components of the nest platforms with materials donated by Home Depot,” Ms Purtell said. “Volunteers based at our Stone Barn Farm are helping staff build entire structures with materials donated by Lowe’s Home Improvement.  Our newest staff member, a coop student from the Environmental Engineering program at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School, is getting a crash course in wildlife management, climate change impacts, carpentry, and volunteer engagement.  While donations from Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Kirby paints (for the two skiffs) are a huge help, the cost of this emergency response will quickly exhaust the project’s resources.”

More lumber and hardware are always needed, screening to hold nesting materials, even Christmas wreaths or woven bittersweet vines come in handy — these are placed atop new platforms “to give osprey the hint that this would be a fine place to build a nest.”

She said more help — labor, donations (cash or materials), even someone with an open boat to help with transport — is needed. Call the sanctuary at 508-636-2437 sign up.

No vacancy

Demand is high and there is a need for virtually all of those 80 nesting platforms.

Ms. Purtell said 77 of those platforms were used last nesting season — some nesting pairs also chose trees, telephone poles and even rocks.

Studies show that osprey “come back to success,” Ms. Purtell said. In other words, a nesting pair that did well last season is apt to return to the same platform, “although there is always some shuffling.”

And if there are more osprey than good nesting platforms available, “there will be aerial warfare.”

The birds have been known to commandeer platforms from osprey that have already begun caring for eggs.

To help keep the peace and provide a happier nesting season, “time is really short to get these platforms back up.”

Ms. Purtell said platform loss this winter is “by far” the worst she has seen in her 16 years here. And she said she fears it may be one more early signal of rising sea waters.

“The marshes where these platforms stand are flooding more than I’ve ever seen and for longer periods.”

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