May 29, 1986 The Osprey: Comeback of the DecadeSECOND SECTION
THE SUFFOLK TIMES
The Osprey: Comeback of the Decade
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
Since there is so much interest in
returning ospreys, I thought it might
be worthy of talking a bit about what
we've been doing to re- establish these
magnificent birds here on the North
Fork.
As most people know, pesticides,
particularly DDT, and the many re-
Focus on
Nature
lated problems stemming from its
misuse caused a direct drop in the
population of the osprey and other
birds of prey at the top of the food
chain. Luck was on our side though,
and with the banning of DDT, the
basic problem was corrected. How-
ever, it did not immediately stop the
falling population of our ospreys and
falcons.
The reason for this was the DDT
had a long residual effect and con-
tinued to devastate the reproduction
of the birds. Just how long the prob-
lem would be with us, no one was
quite sure. What we do know is that
our osprey population is starting to
recover and that after 30 years or
more the problem of DDT seems to be
wearing off. How many other hidden
problems are still in our food chain is
anybody's guess.
During these years our East End
has had a dramatic increase in popu-
lation and loss of open space. Now,
nearly every lot along our shoreline
contains a home or the potential for
a home. This means fewer isolated
tree nesting sites, which gives the re-
bounding population of ospreys a
problem. To overcome this, some of
us have started a program of building
osprey nesting platforms in some of
the less traveled areas. This year
alone we have added six new plat-
forms.
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
OSPREY ON NEST - -Last year was one of the best we've had for ospreys since the 1940s.
Gloria Did Her Damage
Hurricane Gloria hit many of our
old platforms and these had to be re-
built. We are using old galvanized ir-
rigation pipe (donated by Pinewood
Nursery and Briarcliff Sod of Cutch-
ogue) for the poles. The platforms
were made by Tim Gray and donated
free in the hopes of helping this
worthy cause.
There's quite a bit of work involved
in erecting one of these nests. It's not
just digging a four -foot hole three or
four feet deep, but there's an intricate
network of underground supports to
keep the metal pole from tipping over.
Most of the nests have worked out
quite well and the birds have adapted
easily. A new nest we put up last week
had a pair of ospreys on it within four
days, and they were soon busy build-
ing their stick nest they'll return to
year after year.
When the young leave here in the
fall they will go south to winter over
-- anywhere from Georgia to South
America. They will stay in the south
for two or possibly three years as they
learn the skills of fishing and osprey
life. When they return to our area
some will start rearing young and
others will just "play house" and not
get down to the actual rearing of
young that first year. That's why we
sometimes see birds at a nest for a
while, but then they don't stay.
There's a lot we still don't know about
the osprey.
We do know ospreys like high spots
to build on and LILCO's high tension
lines at Mill Creek are no exception.
It's pretty hard to get a nest hold on
these towers but some birds persist.
One pair has given LILCO a hard
See Focus, Page 7A
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