A little human help goes a long way!

written by Maureen Barrett, CWF volunteer/donor/wildlife enthusiast/educator

With wind speeds clocked at 91-92 mph, the osprey nest behind my house didn’t stand a chance! On Tuesday, July 19^th around 8:00 P.M., a thunderstorm came barreling into Fortescue from the northeast. It was a wicked storm with thunder, lightning, and even hail. The wind was so strong that my purple martin housing was being blown around like it was a stalk of phragmites. The adult osprey held their positions on the perching supports of the platform for as long as they could, but soon jumped ship. By that time, the pole for the martin house broke and I couldn’t even see the osprey platform through the rain.

After the storm, some moonlight allowed me to see the silhouette of the osprey platform. It was still standing. But I couldn’t see any nesting material inside; it looked empty. I made an attempt to walk through the marsh to get a closer look, but I thought it would be wise to wait until first light. So I waited for the sun to rise.

An image that was taken using a technique called "digiscoping" reveals two osprey young in the nest.

By 5:00 A.M., my suspicions were confirmed. There was not one piece of nesting material on the platform. Fortunately the adults survived the storm and were once again perched on the platform supports, but the nest and chick were gone. The high winds blew everything off the platform. I quickly put my boots on and walked out on the marsh. I was surprised how relatively easy it was to get to the platform after getting a few inches of rain the night before. There was only one very small ditch I had to cross. I soon found the pile of nesting material and on the edge of the pile was a clump of wet feathers. It looked like the storm had taken the chick’s life. But then I saw some movement! It had survived the storm, the fall, and an evening on the ground!

This being my first experience with such an ordeal, I called my friend Bill Miller who lives up the street. (You know who your friends are when you call them before 6:00 A.M. for a favor!) He brought down a ladder and a piece of plywood. We went back on the marsh, dried the chick with a towel, and put it back on the platform. Within a few minutes, the adults returned to the platform to see their chick back in the nest.

Two other nests in Fortescue were also destroyed by the storm. Later that day, Brian Johnson of the Natural Land Trust’s Glades Wildlife Refuge had to place a foster chick in my nest. This chick’s nest was in a tree and totally destroyed. Both chicks are getting along just fine and being fed by the adults.