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Letter to the editor

Home, safer home is the hope for ospreys

For years, the birds have nested dangerously close to East Lake Road. Now, thanks to Progress Energy, they have a new site.

By JANE MADDEN WELCH, Times Staff Writer
Published August 12, 2007

Whether man or beast, it's dangerous to raise a family right next to a four-lane highway.

But that's what a pair of ospreys have tried to do along East Lake Road - much to the surprise of drivers who sometimes see the raptors swoop low over traffic.

Now, however, the ospreys can move to a new, quieter and safer home. Last week, Progress Energy Florida put up an artificial nesting platform that's farther away from the road than what has been their less-than-ideal home site for more than a year: The top of a sign for the Tarpon Woods Country Club.

The new home should bring a lot of relief to Tarpon Woods resident Barb Walker.

"It was alarming for me (to see the ospreys atop the sign) because it's a low and narrow sign at a busy intersection," said Walker, a resident of the Tarpon Woods subdivision.

Five years ago, Walker watched the ospreys make their nest atop a dead pine tree in her neighborhood. One spring after another, the birds returned to the nest to raise their young.

But in June 2006, Tropical Storm Alberto toppled the pine tree, taking the nest with it.

That's when the ospreys moved their nest to the sign.

Twice, Walker has seen the male osprey narrowly miss being killed by vehicles during his low flight path to the nest. In that area, East Lake Road carries an average of more than 56,000 cars and trucks a day.

Something, Walker decided, needed to be done. So she made some calls and discovered that Progress Energy would install the platform as a donation to the Clearwater Audubon Society.

"I was so happy," said Walker, 42, an Audubon Eagle Watch volunteer. She said the approximate cost of the platform and installation is $1,500.

Progress Energy maintains seven other platforms in a 2-mile area along East Lake and McMullen-Booth roads.

"We deal with ospreys throughout the 35 counties we service in the western and central part of the state," said Buddy Eller, communications manager for Progress Energy Florida.

The artificial nesting platforms are designed and built at the operations plant.

"They last for year and years, and we routinely check them," Eller said.

On Wednesday, workers installed a 30-foot pole toward the rear of a commercial property owned by Lloyd Ferrentino at the southeast corner of East Lake Road and Tarpon Woods Boulevard.

"We wanted to keep the new location within 300 or 400 feet of the existing nest," Eller said.

And first thing Thursday, a Progress Energy crew attached a 5-foot extension mounted to a dish that serves as a platform for the nest. The dish is 60 inches wide and has several holes for water drainage.

The crew took portions of the existing nest, which has been empty for weeks, and put it on the newly installed platform, where the smell is expected to attract the ospreys.

Workers disposed of the rest of the old nest and put a metal device atop the sign to discourage birds from returning.

"These nests are an amazing piece of architecture," Walker said.

Tarpon Woods Country Club Golf Course owner Greg McClimans said he and his crew were careful not to disturb the nest when they changed the message on the marquee-type sign.

"We have another osprey nest on the golf course," McClimans said. "It's important to protect their territory."

Ospreys are territorial birds of prey, surviving almost exclusively on fish, and can live as long as 20 years. They often mate for life and return to the same nest year after year.

East Lake retiree Helen Knox, 63, watched last winter as the nest on top of the sign grew. She marveled as the ospreys tended to their chicks in the spring for the eight weeks it takes until they are ready to fly.

Knox thinks the new elevated platform is a safer spot for them next year.

"Let's just hope they like it," she said.

Fast Facts:

Osprey

Pandion haliaetus

Size: Length of 23 inches and wingspan of 5 feet 6 inches.

Distinctive features: The adult is dark brown above and white below. Often confused with their larger cousin, the bald eagle, but the osprey's head has different coloring. Ospreys have a white crown, a dark line outside of the eye and white under the chin. When flying, they bend their wings in a flattened "M" shape.

Habitat: Coastal estuaries, rivers, lakes. Often seen with a fish in its talons.

Nesting season: Spring through early summer.

Diet: Known as "fish hawks" for their most common prey.

Status: The osprey is federally protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Unless you have a permit, it is illegal to take, transport (or destroy) the birds or their nests, eggs or young.

Source: National Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida by Peter Alden, Rick Cech and Gil Nelson.

[Last modified August 11, 2007, 21:33:31]