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Hope lives for osprey egg that tumbled

After an osprey nest falls from atop a utility pole, only one of the two eggs remain intact. It is now being incubated.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published May 26, 2006

CRYSTAL RIVER - A half-dozen times a day, Becki Elliott makes the rounds with her binoculars.

Elliott, assistant manager at Pete's Pier, walks the marina site, peering at the birds that swim by or soar over. Among her favorites are the three nearby pairs of nesting osprey. She watches the birds hunt, keeps track of which are incubating eggs and gets excited when new chicks first poke their bald heads up over the edge of the nests.

So Elliott was stunned Sunday when she learned that one of her beloved osprey nests had fallen onto the dock. With the help of a passing boater, Crystal River resident David Spivey, Elliott searched through the downed nest.

Inside they found one crushed egg, which was clearly close to hatching because the chick inside was nearly completely formed. But they also found another egg.

As a member of the Nature World Wildlife Rescue, she was able to get the egg into the incubator of one of the group's wildlife rehabilitators. She is hoping that one tiny life might have been saved.

Now comes the waiting game.

At the top of the mast of the nearby sailboat Angel's Wings Thursday morning sat an osprey tearing at a fish.

"That's the mom," she said. She has been seen frequently on that perch since the nest came down. Another osprey, which Elliott said is the father bird, flew onto a nearby roof just a moment later.

"Mom, she's been sitting up there screaming and hollering," Elliott said.

Elliott has been trying to find out how the large nest ended up on the ground. She contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which sent an investigator earlier this week.

In the past, utility workers have cleared the same pole of nesting materials at the beginning of the nesting season. The remains of last year's nest from the pole lie beside this year's shattered nest pieces.

Ospreys are federally protected under the Migratory Bird Act, but Progress Energy has a permit that allows removal of unoccupied osprey nests from utility poles. The nest cannot have chicks or eggs and another nesting area must be provided nearby if a nest is removed, according to the permitting rules by the state agency.

On Thursday, Progress Energy spokeswoman Carla Groleau said that utility workers were not in the area of the nest when it fell on Sunday.

Groleau said protecting nesting ospreys "is definitely a part of our job" and she pointed to numerous places around Kings Bay and Crystal River where the utility has installed new platforms for osprey nests.

The utility has installed satellite dish-shaped nesting sites on Christmas Island across from Pete's Pier. Two other pairs of nesting ospreys inhabit those dishes.

More than likely, they told her, one of the adult birds landed on the structure in just the right way and dislodged it from the power pole.

Elliott is hopeful the remaining egg hatches and the chick someday grow into a healthy wild osprey.

Working in a place where such wild raptors are seen daily makes Elliott feel like she has a special privilege.

"I love the ospreys," she said. "I think they're awesome."

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 26, 2006, 00:50:07]