Note that if you purchase something via one of our links, including Amazon, we may earn a small commission.
To: Bluedot Living
From: Suzan Bellincampi, Mass Audubon Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary
Subject: Osprey are Bingeworthy Birds
Migration miracle
Ospreys are seasonal residents, arriving on Martha’s Vineyard in April and leaving in August. Their routes vary, some go fast, some go slow, but no matter, the successful ones will reach their winter homes in Central and South America. Researchers have tagged Island birds, and their studies give insight into their travels and trials. The arrival of the first Island osprey in the spring is cause for celebration and now, a watch party.
Must-see TV
While ospreys are winging their way north, staff at Mass Audubon have been repairing and updating one pair’s nesting platform at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary.
Thanks to funding from the Couch Family Foundation (and a lift from Island Timber), a camera has been installed that will provide a birds-eye view to see and hear these bird’s seasonal antics. It will be hard for Osprey observers not to binge watch as these fish hawks mate, lay eggs, and raise their young in real time. Watch the live camera here.
Conservation success story
This species suffered from the effects of the chemical DDT which thinned their eggshells and reduced their nesting success and overall population. After the banning of DDT in the United States, osprey populations rebounded, though their numbers remained low on Martha’s Vineyard.
It was back in the early 1960s when Mass Audubon’s first Sanctuary Director Gus Ben David began to ponder the scarcity of breeding Ospreys on Martha’s Vineyard. Ospreys had been starting to nest on the Island on utility poles and trees, but those locales were dangerous to the birds due to live wires or trees that couldn’t hold the weight of those large, heavy nests. When the nesting platform program began, there were only two nesting pairs of ospreys on the Island. Today, more than one hundred pairs successfully breed every year, thanks to the ubiquitous poles erected and monitored.
