Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Ospreys will find new home waiting

Their nest has been returned to its proper place between the YMCA tennis courts.

By THERESA BLACKWELL, Times Staff Writer
Published November 13, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Atoyia Deans | Times] Steve Masterson, owner of A-1 Affordable Tree Service, volunteered to transfer the ospreys' nest from a light pole to a nesting platform at the YMCA of North Pinellas.

EAST LAKE - Monday was moving day for a pair with some experience.

It came with the usual trappings: two cardboard boxes, a 50-foot lift, moss and sticks and a crowd.

For the past five years, a pair of ospreys nested above the tennis courts at the YMCA of North Pinellas. During that time, their home bounced back and forth from light pole to nesting platform.

First, they raised their chicks on a light pole, dropping all sorts of debris on the tennis players below.

"I think there was a fish," said Randy Nilsson, interim executive director at the YMCA of North Pinellas and executive director at the Greater Palm Harbor YMCA.

So the YMCA got a permit to move the nest and bought a nesting platform. Progress Energy erected the platform in a space between the courts and moved part of the nest.

When the female osprey returned in late 2003, the new home passed her inspection. She used sticks as building materials, adding more as the male brought them to her. And they raised their chicks.

Then the hurricanes of 2004 blew down the nest and left the platform hanging from the pole. So the ospreys moved back to the light fixture. They built a nest, adding to it over the years.

Last year, the YMCA had the platform fixed but it was too late to move the nest because nesting season had already begun. The season can start as early as December or January for some ospreys.

So this year, Tim Ackerman, the associate vice president of buildings and grounds for the YMCA of the Suncoast, wanted to get moving before nesting season.

Ackerman called the Clearwater Audubon Society and talked with Barb Walker, who watches over nesting bald eagles and ospreys in East Lake.

Walker helped organize the move and found a small lift for the YMCA to rent. Steve Masterson, owner of A-1 Affordable Tree Service of Holiday, volunteered to transfer the nest.

At noon Monday, it all came together: beautiful weather, puffy clouds, Masterson in long gloves, the lift, two cardboard boxes and a hopeful crowd.

YMCA staff and members, Clearwater Audubon Society officials and more watched as Masterson made trip after trip to the light fixture, breaking off chunks of nest. He pushed them into boxes and then deposited the branches, moss and debris on the platform. Dust and twigs flew, while YMCA members admired the workmanship of the big nest.

"It's amazing how they make that," said Joan Crinnian of East Lake.

"It's so sturdy," said Kathy Kunsman of East Lake, who had just left yoga class.

"What's impressive is how they know how to weave it," said Lynn Sumerson of the Audubon Society. He said the female does that.

The talons of the parents, who mate for life, would crush the eggs and the young if they landed directly in the middle of the nest, Sumerson said. So they land on the edge, curl their talons in and lower themselves into the nest.

Nilsson of the YMCA was happy to see the community come together to help the ospreys.

She led the applause for Masterson when he finished and secured an orange cone on top of the light pole to discourage nesting there.

"Man of the hour," she said. "Thank you, sir."

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 November 12, 2007, 21:38:51]