BIRD SANCTUARY: Groups work toward osprey, eagle habitat
HEATHER SACKETT, News Staff Writer
PORT KENT — Local companies, state agencies and the Audubon Society are working together to provide a safe and visible habitat in the North Country for ospreys and eagles.
The collaboration, almost three years in the making, was the doing of bird expert and High Peaks Audubon Society board member John Thaxton, of Keene. His efforts convinced Lake Placid Municipal Power to donate a 35-foot tall utility pole, Haselton Lumber to donate wood for a viewing platform, the state Department of Environmental Conservation to donate a nesting platform and New York State Electric and Gas to donate the manpower — all to make a place for ospreys and eagles to nest. NYSEG plans to install the nesting platform in Wickham Marsh in Port Kent on Oct. 27.
The osprey is a large fish-eating bird with a six-foot wingspan. Ospreys like to make their home in utility poles because of the wide cross-arms that make it easy to build a nest there, and because utility poles are in the open and hard for predators to reach. This becomes a problem, however, because of the bird’s potential to disrupt the power lines or electrocute themselves.
The problem is compounded, Thaxton said, by the proliferation of ospreys in recent years. A few decades ago, the chemical DDT had almost wiped out the breeding population of ospreys in New York state. After its use was stopped, the birds eventually came back on their own.
“They came on like gang busters,” Thaxton said. “Now they are all over the place. It’s a very refreshing environmental story.”
Peter Kroha, superintendent of Lake Placid Municipal Power, said he was happy to donate one of the 40 old utility poles the company has in its stockpile.
“They (the Audubon Society) approached us this spring, and we were more than happy to donate to their cause,” he said.
According to John O’Connor, a wildlife specialist with DEC, the osprey is no longer threatened in the Northeast, but they do enjoy a higher level of protection than other migratory birds. He said the abundance of ospreys a few miles north at Ausable Point, where nesting platforms have been installed, was becoming a problem.
“They are nesting in the active power lines,” O’Connor said. “We are providing them with alternative locations to prevent them from nesting there.”
Building a nesting platform in Wickham Marsh, which is on the Lake Champlain Birding Trail, will give the birds a safe habitat in an area where the public can easily view them.
“It’s a great educational story,” he said. “(From the viewing platform across the marsh) you will be able to see right into the nest. Educational groups can watch them feeding the young. In the wild, to try to watch birds doing their thing is extremely difficult. Here, it’s right out in the open.”
Although the new platform will probably become a home for ospreys, Thaxton is holding out hope it may someday house a more rare and symbolic bird — the eagle.
“I’m kind of hoping an eagle will use it,” he said. “But it’s much more likely an osprey will.”
POSTED: October 16, 2008
Photos
The collaboration, almost three years in the making, was the doing of bird expert and High Peaks Audubon Society board member John Thaxton, of Keene. His efforts convinced Lake Placid Municipal Power to donate a 35-foot tall utility pole, Haselton Lumber to donate wood for a viewing platform, the state Department of Environmental Conservation to donate a nesting platform and New York State Electric and Gas to donate the manpower — all to make a place for ospreys and eagles to nest. NYSEG plans to install the nesting platform in Wickham Marsh in Port Kent on Oct. 27.
The osprey is a large fish-eating bird with a six-foot wingspan. Ospreys like to make their home in utility poles because of the wide cross-arms that make it easy to build a nest there, and because utility poles are in the open and hard for predators to reach. This becomes a problem, however, because of the bird’s potential to disrupt the power lines or electrocute themselves.
The problem is compounded, Thaxton said, by the proliferation of ospreys in recent years. A few decades ago, the chemical DDT had almost wiped out the breeding population of ospreys in New York state. After its use was stopped, the birds eventually came back on their own.
“They came on like gang busters,” Thaxton said. “Now they are all over the place. It’s a very refreshing environmental story.”
Peter Kroha, superintendent of Lake Placid Municipal Power, said he was happy to donate one of the 40 old utility poles the company has in its stockpile.
“They (the Audubon Society) approached us this spring, and we were more than happy to donate to their cause,” he said.
According to John O’Connor, a wildlife specialist with DEC, the osprey is no longer threatened in the Northeast, but they do enjoy a higher level of protection than other migratory birds. He said the abundance of ospreys a few miles north at Ausable Point, where nesting platforms have been installed, was becoming a problem.
“They are nesting in the active power lines,” O’Connor said. “We are providing them with alternative locations to prevent them from nesting there.”
Building a nesting platform in Wickham Marsh, which is on the Lake Champlain Birding Trail, will give the birds a safe habitat in an area where the public can easily view them.
“It’s a great educational story,” he said. “(From the viewing platform across the marsh) you will be able to see right into the nest. Educational groups can watch them feeding the young. In the wild, to try to watch birds doing their thing is extremely difficult. Here, it’s right out in the open.”
Although the new platform will probably become a home for ospreys, Thaxton is holding out hope it may someday house a more rare and symbolic bird — the eagle.
“I’m kind of hoping an eagle will use it,” he said. “But it’s much more likely an osprey will.”
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