 Volunteer Bob DeLosh captured this image on April 12th to confirm the female of the osprey pair nesting at Dawson Rd. Besides the red band over her USFWL band on her left leg, she has a pair of colored bands on her right leg. They are lavender over another lavender.
The male of this pair had no bands last summer. Bob was also able to capture an image of this seasons male, sans bands, so the likelyhood of this being the same male is quite good.
Neither of this pair was a chick raised as part of the osprey reintroduction program. They are wild birds who have decided to nest in Southeast Michigan for a second season.
Bob DeLosh image; used with permission.
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C09 and mate from last summer have returned to Wildwing Lake for a 4th season. We are delighted this pair has survived their long migration flight back to raise more chicks.
The next pair of ospreys to be confirmed are C22 and his mate from last year. These birds have taken up their old nest on the cell tower, 2 miles South of Lee Rd, and West of old US 23. The green left leg band of C22 was seen by volunteer Jim Kortge.
One of the rewarding and necessary tasks that also took place last weekend was the removal of the garbage can lids placed on the nest platforms last fall to keep geese from nesting there.
With the boat secured to one of the platform poles, Barb climbs the ladder to retrieve the garbage can lid. It was buried under about 7 inches of new nest material, some of which was quite wet.
While Barb was up the ladder, she got this neat picture of C09's nest as it appeared after wrestling the garbage can lid out from under the volumns of new nest material.