May 7th - Opsreys vs. Cell Tower Work |
Barb Jensen and Jim Kortge were out
looking for an osprey nest platform on the Huron River, and happened to spot
workers below the lowest antenna array on the cell tower behind Acme Building
Materials, South of Brighton. Both adult ospreys were flying around, looking
at the workers and their nest, but would not land and resume incubating.
Our discovery of this activity occured at approximately 11:45 am on Thursday,
5/6/2004.
|
A closer look showed that workers
were installing some kind of collar assembly. Later, we learned this assembly
would hold another set of antennas for a fourth cellular telephone service
provider.
|
We found out this project had actually
started on Wednesday, 5/05/2004, and was now into its second day. By the end of the day on Thursday,
5/6/2004, a new set of antennas had been mounted, but not connected to
the electronics, which would eventually be installed on the ground.
During the early afternoon, several conversations occured among the site installation supervisors, OWSEM volunteers, and DNR personnel regarding the disruption of nesting activities which was occuring, versus continuing this work. Late in the afternoon, the site supervisors were provided a set of DNR recommendations for continuing the remaining work, which would comply with the "Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, Part 365 of PA 451", which is intended to protect ospreys. |
Early Friday morning (5/07/2007), one
of the site supervisors climbed the tower to see what was in the nest.
He confirmed what OWSEM volunteers had conveyed the previous day,
that there were eggs in the nest. He took a picture of the nest with its
3 eggs.
About mid-morning, he told Jim Kortge that work on the installation was being postponed for an indefinite amount of time, until a work schedule more accomodating to the birds could be developed. He stated that one of the workers would need to climb the tower one more time to retrieve the ropes, so that those would not be a safety issue, make noise, nor disturb the birds. He estimated that climb would take about 15-20 minutes. As expected, when the climber reached approximately the mid-point of the tower, the female osprey flew off the nest and began circling. C22 also flew in, and circled the nest and tower with his mate. |
Having removed the ropes, the climber
descended past the mid-point of the tower, and the female returned to her
nest. She was off her eggs for 22 minutes.
|
This is the "new look" of the cell tower,
from Whitmore Lake Rd., with the addition of the 4th antenna array. The
osprey nest is on the top level, at the right-rear point of the triangular
antenna platform.
This incident is, no doubt, a good early warning indicator of similar problems that will occur as ospreys increasingly populate SE Michigan. Their demonstrated affinity for nesting in man-made high places will most likely increase. |
Images on this page provided by Jim Kortge.