|
|
Photo Kevin Mullaney
Waiting for lunch? An osprey hangs out at Wellfleet Harbor. |
|
|
Help a good cause, sponsor an osprey
Banner Daily Update posted Sat. April 21
By Kaimi Rose Lum
Banner Staff
WELLFLEET — If a bird could be described as swashbuckling, that bird would be the osprey. Not only is this fish-eating raptor capable of all kinds of aerodynamic derring-do, it’s also the subject of a great conservation success story. Pesticides and habitat loss caused the statewide osprey population to dwindle to as few as 10 nesting pairs by the 1970s, but with some human help their numbers have rebounded and now there are 50 osprey pairs on the Cape alone.
But they still need a hand, and that’s where the Mass. Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary’s “Osprey Project” comes in. It’s a community-based effort to “census” the ospreys from the mid- to outer Cape by staking out the various nesting platforms that have been built over the past 20 years — usually on the tops of utility poles — to give the birds a home base. Some of those poles have deteriorated, some may have proven to be more successful breeding spots than others, and what the sanctuary needs is a solid corps of volunteers to help them figure out the lay of the landscape so they can plan ways to help the osprey in the future.
“Everyone’s adopting a pole,” says Melissa Lowe, the sanctuary’s education coordinator. Already, 35 volunteers have stepped forward to sponsor a nest site, and they are in the process of logging the birds’ daily domestic activities. As time goes by and breeding season gets into full swing, they will be recording important milestones like the hatching and fledging of chicks. All that information is communicated via email and phone to the sanctuary.
More volunteers are needed, however, and if you’d like to help, call Dennis Murley, the sanctuary’s Osprey Project coordinator, at (508) 349-2615, or email dmurley@massaudubon.org.
“It’s kind of fun just to see what’s happening on a local level, as people report on ‘their ospreys,’” says Lowe. One volunteer assigned to a mid-Cape nest reported that the osprey was getting creative with its nest building — it had found a golf club (“I don’t know what iron it was,” says Lowe) and was trying to heave it to the platform where a pile of sticks had already been assembled.
Must have been a pretty strong bird.
|
Tides subdivision permits suspended
Taking the next step in Truro
Truro celebrates Earth Day with animal blessing
Nauset Light beach hit hard by storm erosion
Interactive sculpture brings old fishing harbor to life
One Book, One Community events this week
Meet the new town manager
|
|
|
|
|
Apr 19th, 2007