Conserve Wildlife Blog

Osprey platforms faired well after Sandy

November 26th, 2012

Post-storm surveys and reports from public equal a sigh of relief!

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

No doubt the effects of superstorm Sandy will be felt for a long time, especially to residents of coastal areas who experienced flooding with the associated storm surge. During the past two hurricanes, Irene last August and now Sandy, I was really worried that a lot of osprey nesting platforms would get damaged or lost during the storms. Luckily my worries didn’t become reality! So far most nesting platforms are still standing strong despite a 15′ storm surge with sustained winds of at least 70-80mph. I’ve heard of a few structures that have fallen down. Most were probably ones that were older structures that were constructed poorly or installed too close to the edge on the saltmarsh. Over the next couple weeks we’re planning on getting out to other colonies to survey for damage caused by Sandy.

An osprey platform after superstorm Sandy hit the coast of New Jersey.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Comments are closed.