By TODD McLEISH/ecoRI News contributor
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| Ospreys were driven to near extinction in the 1960s and 1970s because of the effects of the pesticide DDT. (Ed Hughes/for the Audubon Society of Rhode Island) |
Rhode Island’s osprey population is climbing, after a highly productive year in 2016, and while the wet spring of 2017 will likely cause a decrease in nesting success this year, the once-rare fish-eating hawk is a model conservation success story, according to new report issued by the Audubon Society of Rhode Island, which has coordinated the monitoring of osprey nests statewide since 2010.
“We’ve had an amazing
long-term trend of not just active nests but successful nests and the number of
young,” said Jonathan Scoones, Audubon’s director of volunteer services who
coordinates the osprey monitoring program. “Only nine of our
nests were not successful this year, so it seems that our ospreys are becoming
experienced at raising young.”
More than 100 volunteers
recorded 159 active osprey nests in the state last year, with 150 of them
successfully raising chicks, an increase of 28 successful nests over the
previous year and 45 more than in 2014. The number of young ospreys that
fledged from their nests skyrocketed from 186 in 2014 to 297 in 2016.
“Last year was the perfect year for ospreys, mostly because of the weather,” Scoones said. “The birds have to be able to see through the water to find the fish to bring them back to their chicks. They have to be able to see down about three feet into the water. If the weather is bad, they can’t see well enough.”
For the third year in a row,
osprey nests in Barrington and South Kingstown produced the most fledglings,
with 42 and 41, respectively. The Palmer River area of Barrington and Warren
had the densest aggregation of osprey nests in the region, with 22 nests
between the East Bay Bike Path bridge in Warren and the Swansea Country Club
just over the Massachusetts border.
Butch Lombardi, who monitors
a dozen of the nests on the Palmer River, said that food availability and water
conditions make the area an ideal place for osprey to nest.
“Food is the prime reason
they’re there,” he said. “The river is pretty shallow once you get past the
Warren bridge, and there is very little boat traffic except for kayaks and
canoes. The key is that the river is so shallow that the birds can hunt it
pretty easily because the fish can’t go deep on them.
“If you add Merriman’s Pond
at the country club, which is just two feet deep, it’s like McDonald’s takeout
for them. It’s an easy place for a meal.”
Ospreys were driven to near
extinction in the 1960s and ’70s because of the effects of the pesticide DDT,
which caused reproductive failure in many fish-eating birds, including bald
eagles. When the osprey monitoring program began in 1977 —
originally coordinated by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental
Management — just eight young ospreys fledged from nests in the state.
Today, ospreys nest in 28
cities and towns in Rhode Island, including every coastal community except
Cranston, as well as inland communities such as Coventry, Exeter, Scituate and
West Greenwich.
“There are probably more
nests out there that we’re not aware of,” Scoones said, “so we’d love to get
feedback from people who may know of nests we can’t easily access. The Scituate
Reservoir probably has ospreys, but we don’t have access there to look for
them.”
While ospreys appear to be
quite common in many parts of the state, Scoones doesn’t believe the area has
reached maximum capacity.
“Westport [Mass.] has 80
nests along a short stretch of the river there, so the birds can live
communally rather than just one every mile or so, which is what we have here,”
he said. “So we can still take on more capacity.”
Scoones said the Palmer
River area may not be able to support many more ospreys, but there are numerous
places around Greenwich Bay in the Warwick and Cranston area that are available
for additional osprey nests.
The Audubon staffer doesn’t
believe 2017 will be a banner year for ospreys, however. He expects to see
evidence of more new nests being built by many of the birds that fledged from
nests in the area during the past two years, but the rainy spring will probably
mean that successful nests will produce fewer young than in 2016.
“It’s just harder to find
food in the rain; the birds can’t see into the water,” Scoones said. “They
don’t like to fly in the rain anyway, and the mother spends her time covering
her chicks when it rains, so she can’t help find food.”
Despite his prediction for
this year, Scoones anticipates that the increasing trend in osprey numbers will
continue into the future.
“We have enough population
here already that we can probably weather a few years of something going wrong,
like bad weather or food not being available,” he said. “I’m excited about the
future because more people are aware of the osprey and are willing to protect
them. The birds are being accepted and no longer seen as a threat to fish.”
Scoones remains concerned,
however, about continued coastal development that could limit the availability
of nesting habitat.
“They need to be able to
live in trees or nests close to the water where they can get to their food,” he
said. “Nearshore development is forcing ospreys to leave their natural nests,
and now they’re going to cell towers and power line towers.”
Anyone interested in
becoming an osprey monitor or helping to repair osprey nest poles, should
contact Scoones at 401-245-7500 or jscoones@asri.org.
Rhode Island resident and author Todd
McLeish runs a wildlife blog.