By GENE BULLOCK
Kitsap Audubon
Fish handlers at Pike’s Place Market may be adept at tossing fish, but the real master fish handlers are ospreys.
Poulsbo’s thriving family of ospreys is a familiar sight on the Strawberry Field light tower as the parents regularly drop fish into the nest for their two growing fledglings. It’s comical to watch the youngsters dive for fish in the nearby pond. They sometimes end up going for a swim. The parents will continue patiently feeding them while they master their fishing skills; but it’s serious business for the juveniles. They won’t survive the winter without those skills.
Ospreys are also called seahawks, and many sports teams are named for them, including our own Seattle Seahawks. These popular birds are loved and protected around the world. Communities erect nesting platforms to keep the birds from harm, such as electrocuting themselves on power distribution poles and transformers, or causing fires where nesting materials are in contact with hot lights and electrical equipment. The resulting fires often injure the birds, as well as damage equipment. On school playing fields, the nests are an added health and safety hazard because of falling sticks and excrement.
Ospreys love to build their nests on the highest point they can find, giving them a sweeping view and an early warning if eagles approach. Eagles will snatch the young if they can. But ospreys are more agile in the air and well able to defend their broods unless taken by surprise. To ospreys, cell towers and tall light poles look like a perfect place for a nest.
Kitsap Audubon is working closely with the North Kitsap School District and other community organizations to relocate the Poulsbo osprey family to a safer location nearby. The Audubon chapter is also working with osprey expert Jim Kaiser. For more than 25 years, Jim conducted research as a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Biological Resources Division in the Pacific Northwest. He left to form his own consulting service, Osprey Solutions, and has helped install more than 300 osprey nesting platforms.
They hope to relocate the nest soon after the family leaves for Central America in mid-to-late September, and have it ready when the adults return next April. The juveniles won’t return until their third year.
Kitsap Audubon is prepared to help fund the project and is looking for community organizations and individual donors to share the cost. Although details are still being worked out, building and installing a new nest platform is expected to cost up to $3,000. Tax-deductible donations may be mailed to the Kitsap Audubon Society, PO Box 961, Poulsbo WA 98370, and designated for the Poulsbo Osprey Project.
