August 07, 2008 - All about osprey nestsThe Suffolk Times • August 7, 2008
The ospreys in the photographs that
appeared in the last Focus on Nature
column all picked a unique location
for their nest. There are many other
nests in and around the North Fork —
too many to tell about.
Barbara and I have been working
in one way or another with ospreys
for over 40 years. In those years we've
seen the nest sites of ospreys change,
due mainly to man's encroachment
into the ospreys' territory. This week
I'd like to give you some interesting
background about the nests that were
pictured -and what makes them so
special.
. Let's start with the photo in the
center, "a windmill home" that has
the osprey nest on top bf a windmill.
To the average observer that is all it
is; but the significance to me is that
it was built on Roy Latham's wind-
mill in Orient. He was one of Long
Island's great naturalists and recorded
everything he saw.
In a letter to his sisterhe spoke of
60 nests in Orient
around 1940
FOCUS at the peak of .
their nesting. I
O N can remember
NATURE him telling
he could see e 19
by Paul nests just from
Stoutenburgh his back porch.
His records
on birds, mam-
mals, fish and plants are unbelievable.
Most of the valuable information he
gathered during his lifetime is now in
natural history museums.
To the right of the windmill photo is
"built on brick," showing a nest on the
top of the brick chimney at Gold-
smith's Shipyard. Anyone familiar
with our local history knows bricks
from high - quality clay were once
made right here on the North Fork.
The nest shown in the photo is atop a
high smokestack that was once used
in the brick - making process. When
looking at old bricks, look for the
imprinted names "Sanford" or "Sage,"
both made here.
Below it, the "beachfront living"
osprey nest on the beach is almost
unique. There are only two places to-
day where ospreys nest on the ground;
Robins Island and Gardiners Island.
This photo was taken on Gardiners
Island. The reason they can build on
the ground is that there are no preda-
tors such as fox or raccoon that can
devastate their nests.
1 about
os"Drev nests
Under the photo of the nest on the
beach is a typical "affordable hous-
ing" man-made platform most are fa-
miliar with. Here is a case where man
stepped in and helped Mother Nature
by satisfying the need for nesting
sites. The favorite location for these
platforms is out in or next to a salt
marsh. Here a pole with a platform is
located and readily accepted. Usually
a perch is placed nearby for the male
to rest on. Today almost every creek
on the North Fork has its nesting pair
of ospreys.
In the lower right hand corner of
the page you see a huge nest that has
been used for years being checked on.
.Adding to the same nest year after
year has its drawbacks, for when too
Suffolk Times photo by
Paul Stoutenburqh
Most of us see
ospreys from a
distance, but
when seen up
close, as in
this photo, the
osprey's hooked
beak, so char-
acteristic of
hawks, stands
out. The osprey
Is often called a
`fish hawk:
much weight is put on a tree limb or
pole, the nest and all its contents can
be lost. In the case of this particular
nest, however, it wouldn't fall too far
as it is so close to the ground.
On the top of the page to the left c
the windmill, the "top of the world"
osprey was a new one this year.
We watched from the King Kullen
parking lot as day after day a pair of
ospreys worked tirelessly to estab-
lish their nest on the big round drum
of the telephone company tower.
Persistence paid off and the nest was
finally built and young produced. As
you get out of your car to shop, you
can hear the ospreys calling and see
the male sitting high atop the pole just
to the east of the King Kullen building
after he has dropped off a' fish for the
female and her young.
Just below that nest "on the wa-
terfront" shows an osprey coming
into its nest on a small building on
Robins Island. This nest was used for
years until a nor'easter wiped out the
nest, the building and the dock. On
the west side of the island there is an
unusual nest on a big rock out in the
water where ospreys have nested for
years. This year close by on the island
we could see a huge nest on top of the
old windmill that was once'used to
(keep a pond full of water.
To the left of the waterfront photo
is the "power house" nest on high -
tension wires that immediately gives
you an idea this is a dangerous place
to be. Often these nests are removed
because of the danger. We have seen
cases where ospreys have been elec-
trocuted as they land on high - voltage
lines. These nests can be found along
the railroad tracks near Port of Egypt
An interesting point about these nest
near the railroad tracks is that if the
female is on the nest when the train
comes through, she just stays put and
lets the train rumble by.
The last photo in the lower left cor-
ner, "on frozen pond," is unique in the
sense that this nest was put up in The
Nature Conservancy's Husing Pond
in Mattituck. Of the more than 30
osprey nests I helped to erect over the
years, this one stands out in my mind
as being unique since it was erected
through the ice. It was in 1978 when
a group of concerned citizens, young
and old, gathered on a cold winter day
to chop a hole through the ice and get
the upright pole deep into the bottom
of the pond, where it has stayed with
only occasional repair. This year it has
two or three healthy young ready to
leave the nest any day.
Perhaps it was Mr. Dart, my science
teacher in high school, who first, got
me interested in photography, not just
of classmates and things going on in
school but also of the world around
us. That natural world included birds,,
my true interest. I couldn't wait for
the next issue of the National Geo-
graphic Magazine to come out, for it
was running a series of bird photo-
graphs by Dr. Arthur Allen of Cornell
that were taken on brilliant Ko-
dachrome color film. It was my hope I
would be able to do that some day.
Today my interest, as well as Bar-
bara's, revolves around the taking of
photos and writing articles, and, yes,
much of this has involved ospreys. We
cnow that many of you keep an eye .
in the ospreys in your neighborhood
is well as checking on others around
:he North Fork and look forward, as
ve do, to their return each snrina