April 26, 2007 - Part Three Osprey DiariesThe Suffolk Times • April 26, 2007
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Suffolk Times sketch and photo
by Paul Stoutenburgh
OSPREY PLATFORM: Ospreys
accept man -made structures
quite readily, provided they
are placed far enough away
tea.- from human activity. The rough
sketch above shows how our
platforms were built. This is
just a general guide. There are
many variations of this basic
structure.
March 14,1985:
"By the next weekend we will have
repaired two old nests and put up four
new ones. Our hopes are to have a new
one in Mattituck
Inlet, on the
F o 77 beach of Little
O N Creek, along
the Sound in
NATURE Southold, and if
all goes well, one
by Paul at the entrance
Stoutenburgh of Town Creek,
Southold. Years !
ago when there
were a lot fewer people around and
more big old trees, the ospreys built in
the oaks."
April 26, 2007 — Cousin Clayton
told us in 1955 when we bought our
Property from him that years before
there had been an osprey nest in the big
oak tree in our backyard —PS
March 14,1985, continued: "But
things have changed, and almost ev-
erywhere there once was an osprey
nest, people now have taken over. With
that in mind, we improvise by building
man-made structures and placing them
in spots inaccessible to people,."
April 26, 2007 — Sometimes ospreys
take it upon themselves to build in an
area that conflicts with man, such as on
a chimney built on a home on Nassau
Point, making the chimney useless and
ossibly afire hazard. We took down
the nest and put up a platform down the
beach, away from the house, and were
able to lure the bird to the new nesting
site. Occasionally sites came into ques-
tion for some reason and were taken
down and moved. "Live and learn. " —PS
March 14,1985, continued: "It is.
good to see that most everyone is in-
terested in the survival of our osprey.
Yet, I've actually heard some people
say, `So what if the osprey becomes
extinct? No big deal.' And in some
respects, they are right. Other plants
and animals have become extinct and
the world has gone along just the same
What we try to get across to such a
person is that all things in nature are
"indicators." The osprey's decline
showed us that the pesticide DDT was
getting into the bird's food chain. And
if it got into the bird's food chain, and
the osprey lived on fish that you and
I ate — well, we decided we'd better
look into it and we did.
. "We found DDT did not disappear
and often lingered for 10 or 20 years
or more. It also had very bad effects
on the reproduction cycle of the os-
prey. If it could do it to the ospreys, it
could do it to us, and DDT was finally
banned."
April 26, 2007 — DDT is still being
produced and shipped overseas, where
there are no restrictions One can only
wonder what havoc it's playing in the
food chains where it is being used. And
don't we import food from other parts
of the world today? —PS
March 14,1985, continued: "The
reduction in the osprey population
was dramatic all along Long Island
Sound and neighboring bay areas of
Long Island. From over 1,000 pairs at
one time in the Northeast, the figures
declined to fewer than 100 pairs in the
'50s and '60s. Gardiners Island boasted
over 300 nesting pairs of ospreys in the
early '30s.
"We'll probably never see that kind
of population again, for .the limiting
factor now — and to some extent then
— was the loss of our wetlands. Over
40 percent of these valuable nutrient
areas have been destroyed. This means
that 40 percent of the grasses that , "
make up the marsh are not available
for nature's nutrient factory. This fac-
tory feeds the zooplankton, crabs, mol-
lusks, insects, and small fish, etc., which
in turn are consumed by the larger fish,
which are eaten . by man and bird alike.
"If ever there were a noble bird, it is
the osprey. Its successful reproduction
these last few years gives us hope that
our creeks and bays are ridding them-
selves of DDT and its lethargy.
"In the early-part of spring the male
osprey will be showing off in great
dives and swoops to prove himself to
his mate. If all goes well, tiny heads will
later appear over the edge of the nest,
and a very caring mother will daintily
feed the young. This will be a busy time
"When they return to our area some
will start rearing young and others will
just 'play house' and not get down to
actual rearing of young that first year.
That's why we sometimes see birds at
a nest for awhile, but then they don't.
tay. There's a lot we still don't know
bout the osprey.
"We do know ospreys like high spots
o build on and LILCO's high- tension
es at Mill Creek are no exception.
It's pretty hard to get a nest to hold
onto these towers but some birds per-
sist. One pair has given LILCO a hard
time for the past few years. Each year
they start to build and each year, for
safety reasons, LILCO has tried to dis-
courage the birds from using the tow-
ers as a nesting place.
for the male; back and forth with his
catches he will fly to feed his always -
hungry young.
"Later, as they grow; they'll earn
their wings by flapping and trying to
take off This is their pre -flight training
and it's done endlessly before takeoff.
Then one day they'll be off, and other
ospreys will be added to the circuit.
They, too, will go south in the winter,
perhaps exploring the far reaches of
the Amazon.
"They'll stay there for one or two
years, learning the skills of survival,
until one day that inner urge will take
over and they'll head north once again
to become part of the migration that
we look forward to each year. It is
these new arrivals that we build our
platforms for each year. And like the
young people of our race, it is they whc
we pin our hopes on for the future."
Aril 17,1986:
"What we dp know is that our os-
ey population is starting to recover
,d that after 30 years or more the
oblem of DDT seems to be wearing
E How many other hidden problems
e still in our food chain is anybody's
"During these years, our East End
s had a dramatic increase in popul
tion 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 rebounding population
of ospreys a problem. To overcome this,
some of us have been building osprey -
nesting platforms in some of the less
traveled areas. This year alone we have
added six new platforms.
"Hurricane Gloria hit many of our
old platforms and these had to be
rebuilt. We are using old galvanized
irrigation pipe (donated by Pinewood
Nursery and Briarcliff Sod of Cu-
tchogue) for the poles. The platforms
were made by Tun Gray and donated
free in 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 three -foot hole three or
four feet deep, but there's an intricate -
network of underground supports to
keep the metal pole from tipping over."
April 26,2007 — Dead men (2 x 6s
or 2 x 4s) are placed in the hole in both
directions to support the pole When
turkey wire is attached to the platform,
sticks and branches are tied on as an
incentive for the ospreys to build their
nest. —PS
April 17,1986, continued: "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 building their stick
nest that they'll return to year after
year, we put up a.platform on one of
the nearby islands in the mouth of the
creek, but it was too low and they paid
no attention to it. The osprey wanted
the high tower line and kept adding to
it all summer. This year we incorpo-
rated a platform on one of the old tele-
graph poles that once carried Western
Union messages to all stationmasters
along the line.
"We contacted LILCO and told
them of the new lower nest and sug-
gested that if they would remove the
remains of last year's nest before the
birds returned that they might adopt
the new site. LILCO did just that and
within days the returning birds gave up
the high nesting site for the new lower
one. The pair is now busy building on
the abandoned telegraph pole along-
side the railroad tracks at Mill Creek.
"It's izood to see the ospreys com-
ing back. They, ce so many indicators,
told us that there was a problem in our
system. Study and research found out
what the problem was and luckily we
had time to correct it and DDT was
banned. These natural indicators — os-
preys decreasing because of pesticides,
fish dying off in our lakes because
of acid rain, or the loss of our local
shellfish beds because of road runoff
— are all indicators telling us we'd
better clean up our act, for we, like the
birds, and the fish, are all a part of the
System, and our turn to be affected
-ould be next."
April 26, 2007 = Thanks for joining
,is on some of our journeys back into
he lives of our North Fork ospreys
We've enjoyed having you along. Keep
In eye out for your favorite osprey, as
iou never know when it might need
your help. — Barbara and Paul