Breaking News - 2004!
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July 28th: There are quite a number of new
items to report beginning with the announcement of OWSEM's upcoming Osprey
Fest on August 8th. Come help us celebrate the return of these
wonderful birds to southern Michigan. Follow this link for all of
the details.
Two new
(to us anyway) osprey nests have been visited and photographed. The most
recent is in Lowell, MI. This nest was reported by Bob Tarte who
lives in the area. When Bob reported the nest to the UMICH Birders Group,
there were at least two chicks. Only one chick was seen during our visit.
The details of that July 25th trip can be found here.
A second nest was visited earlier on July 23rd. This nest is located
at Sterling State Park in Monroe, MI. Tim Smart reported it to OWSEM
several weeks ago and he saw 3 chicks in it then. When we visited
it, only 2 chicks were visible, but Tim assures us that all three
are still there. The story of our visit to this nest is here.
Another major activity which took place on July 9th was the banding
of the 7 chicks located in the Dawson Rd., Wildwing Lake, and Brighton cell
tower nests. Banding was done by wildlife biologist Sergej Postupalsky, with assistance from OWSEM
volunteers Barb Jensen and Christi Vedejs, and Lucinda and John McFarlin
of McFarlin Tower Co. John and Lucinda were responsible for bringing the
three chicks down from the cell tower, and putting them back in the nest
after banding. Without their help and dedication to our local ospreys, this
banding activity could not have been accomplished. Osprey Watch of SE Michigan
applauds this contribution and thanks them for their ongoing support and
assistance, as well as the support from the many cellular telephone and
tower companies (including Trin Tel in Irvine, TX and Advanced Integrated
Services in Wixom, MI) for whom they do work. Details
of the banding activities at these three sites are here.
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July 1st: More
very good news! The Dawson Rd. nest was surveyed this morning
with the small "Nest Camera" setup used last year. There are three
more healthy chicks to report. The "Baby Ospreys and More"
image page has been updated to include a picture of these chicks.
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June 27th:
We have several new "activities" to report, beginning with a
visit to Consumers Energy's Monroe Power Plant. An active osprey nest
had been reported at this facility, and we wanted to check it out. OWSEM
volunteers Jim Kortge, Barb Jensen, and Val Valoppi met with Tom St.
Bernard and Saudia Santure of that facility and were provided updates
on osprey activity there over the past three years. We later viewed and
photographed the ash silo, where the active nest is located. Val Valoppi
is looking for volunteers who live in that area to assist her in monitoring
this nest. If you can help, send an email to osprey@owsem.org.
Baby ospreys
are also in the news! There is a confirmed chick in the Wildwing Lake
nest at Kensington. It was photographed by Bob DeLosh on June 7th, and
looked to be about a week old in that photo.
There are also three, approximately two-week old chicks in
the cell tower nest south of Brighton, adjacent to Acme Building Materials.
These three chicks were photographed by tower climber David Owen,
as the first of many events during three days of tower work recently
completed by the good folks of McFarlin Tower. See the updated "Friends of the Osprey" page
for details.
We also have reason to believe there are two or three chicks
in the Dawson Rd. nest, based on observed feeding activity. It is hoped
the osprey camera setup used last summer can be used to photograph this
nest during the upcoming week to confirm its contents. Observers are
continuing to see three other adult ospreys visiting this nest. There is
a single bird, and another pair who come by once, and sometimes twice each
day. No bands have been observed on any of these curious visitors.
Finally, in the "rather uncommon" category is an osprey sighting
from Matthew Holcomb of Metamora who witnessed and video taped an osprey
taking a Koi out of his pond. That sighting, along with the nest at Consumers
Energy in Monroe, have been added to the osprey sighting map. The updated
map is here.
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June 3rd:
Several exciting things have happened since the last update.
On May 28th, the unbanded female ospreys at the Wildwing Lake and Dawson
Rd. nests were captured, banded, and released. As a result of this activity,
it will be easy to identify them in coming years. Some pictures and
details of the Dawson Rd. banding activity are here.
As a byproduct of the banding activity, the contents of each
nest were determined. The Wildwing Lake nest has but one egg. However,
"peeping" sounds could be heard emanating from it. We think this egg
may have hatched on or shortly after May 31st. The Dawson Rd. nest
has 3 eggs in it; the same number of eggs as the nest on the cell tower
detailed previously.
In addition, observers are frequently seeing from one to
three ospreys, usually unbanded, visiting the Dawson Rd. nest. These
"intruders" seem to visit daily, and do not appear to be known, nesting
birds.
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"Ospreys,
workers face off up above" - declares the Detroit Free Press!
May 10th: Joel Thurtell, of the Detroit Free Press, has
written a very nice, well balanced story about the ospreys on the
cell tower South of Brighton, and their conflict with SPRINT contracted
workers needing to add antennas to the tower. His article appears
in this Monday's paper. A captioned summary
of last week's activities surrounding this event has been added to
the photo section.
More photos showing the Dawson
Rd. nesting ospreys have been added in the photo section. Those
photos can be found here.
A new Volunteer Information
page has been activated. Its first feature is a write-up on osprey
monitoring by osprey expert Sergej Postupalsky. Sergej is a biologist
who has done a great deal of osprey monitoring and banding in Northern
Michigan and Wisconsin. He also banded the 3 chicks in the Wildwing
Lake nest last summer, located at Kensington MetroPark.
Finally, a "Friends
of the Osprey" award page has been installed, as a way to thank
those individuals and organizations who have gone "beyond the call"
in supporting our SE Michigan ospreys. Acme Building Materials Inc.
in Brighton is our first award recipient.
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May 4th: We have confirmed that neither
of the osprey pair nesting on the 2nd Dawson Rd. platform is banded.
Bob DeLosh took photos of this pair a few days ago, and Jim
Kortge took more today. No bands can be seen in any of these
images. Highlights of today's images are in the photo album.
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April 30th: Another osprey pair
has been seen using the farther of the two nesting platforms, south
of the Dawson Rd. bridge, on the Huron River. This sighting
has been verified by two OWSEM volunteers. We don't have any ID information
at this time, but are excited there are now 2 active nests within the
Kensington MetroPark. This newest nesting site has been added
to the sighting map.
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April 28th: An osprey sighting
map
has been added to this web site, so that OWSEM volunteers and interested
birders can see where birds have been spotted, and where the known,
active nests are located. We encourage you to send reports of new
ospreys seen in the SE Michigan area, that are NOT on the map, to osprey@owsem.org.
I'd also like to encourage you to report what you've
seen to the DNR, but at the moment, their reporting system isn't
working. We will let you know when it is fixed and operating again.
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The Saga
Continues......
April 22th: In an interesting turn of
events, we now know that the male osprey using the nest on the
Brighton, MI cell tower is C22! He may have been courting
two females, but we are not sure. It seemed like he was being
seen at Wildwing Lake, about the same time the tip came in there
was a nest on the cell tower, and that male was observed to have a
"hacking band" with a last digit of "2". Regardless, the current situation
is that C09 is now at his prior year nest on Wildwing Lake with his
prior year mate, and going about the business of getting ready for
egg laying. C22 is following suite, with the female he was with
early last spring, and is now known to be nesting on the cell tower.
(One wonders if yet another unidentified male got displaced in this
latest move?)
On another exciting front, Barb Jensen spotted
a pair of ospreys in the late afternoon, perched on a cell tower,
literally on the North village limits of Milford, MI. This happened
on April 21st. Later that evening, Kathy and Jim Kortge saw the same
pair, and verified Barb's observation that neither of these birds
wore any leg bands. Some pictures are included in the Photo Section
of this pair. The birds left the cell tower, and flew Northward,
traveling up to Moore Lake, and on to the middle of Lower Pettibone
Lake, where they were observed flying quite high, with yet
another pair of ospreys. Many loud calls were heard among this
group of four. We thought there might be an active nest on the
platform installed by the DNR this past winter on Pickerel Lake, which
is the next lake North of Lower Pettibone Lake. A detailed check
of that platform this morning revealed only the seed sticks placed by
the DNR, and no nest building activity. Hopefully, others volunteers will
continue to see this group of ospreys, and provide enough sighting information
to establish their range and possible nesting location(s).
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C09
really is back!
April 19th: Earlier reports
of his return were premature, but he finally arrived back
at Kensington on April 16th, and was seen and photographed by
volunteer and photographer Bob DeLosh. C09's first move was
to shoo C22 off his nest, and away from his old mate. At least
C22 hasn't left like he did last year, but is hanging around, and
perhaps will have some success this season finding a mate. He
really does need relationship counseling!
Other news includes being
tipped off about an osprey nest South of Brighton, MI, located
up top a Nextel cell tower. Upon investigation, we found that
indeed there is a nest, and the folks at Acme Building Materials
Inc, reported it was active last summer, and produced at least one
chick, maybe more. They're not sure. Some watching with good
optics revealed the male to be tagged with a green hacking band with
the "C" prefix, and a last digit of "2". This bird is most likely
C12 from the 1999 group of chicks, and a hacking mate of C09. It
could also be C32 from the 2000 group of chicks hacked at Maple River.
The higher probability goes with C12, since there was a successful
nesting last season. The female of this pair has a silver federal
band on her right leg, and what appears to be a red plastic ID band on
her left leg. This could well be the female that arrived with C22
last spring, and then disappeared. She had the same band set.
Finally, a report came in
about an osprey sighted crossing M-59 North of Highland, MI.,
from Joseph Roose. A few days later, Mary Burke spotted an osprey
on Harvey Lake, just North of M-59. She also saw it again over the
weekend South of M-59 in the swampy area adjacent to Highland Recreation.
I went looking for it on Sunday morning, but had no success.
Hopefully, volunteers will be successful in seeing it several
more times, and maybe discovering if and where it is nesting.
Some pictures of C09 and
his mate with their refurbished nest are included in the photo
section, along with some photos of the C12? pair atop the cell
tower. Enjoy.......
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OOOps!
April 3rd, 2004: What
was thought to be C09 isn't! It is probably C22 from the
group of chicks hacked in 2000, who was back last summer, but
did not have a successful nest. It could also be C12
from the 1999 group, but not likely. Hopefully, someone
will see the rest of the leg band soon; the last digit is known
to be a "2".
The female he is with might be C09's mate,
as she seems to have an agressive attitude toward other intruding
birds, a trait noticed in C09's mate. Volunteer Bob DeLosh
watched her evict a goose from the nest platform she is using,
and Jim Kortge saw her put a goose (maybe the same one) completely
underwater when it swam too close.
No other ospreys were sighted
today on Kent Lake or Wildwing Lake.
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C09 and mate have returned to their
old nest at Wildwing Lake, and taken up residence again.
They were spotted by several observers on March 29th - 31st.
We have not had any verified reports of osprey sightings
beyond this pair, either at Kensington Metropark, or elsewhere
around the Southeast part of the state. We expect over the
next few weeks to see more returning birds.
Some of the chicks that were
raised and released in 2001 should be returning this year, along
with others from the "Osprey Reintroduction Program" that started in
1998. These birds have a green, alphanumeric, hacking band
on their left leg, which is quite easy to see with optics. The
numbers all begin with the letter "C". Reports of these birds and
their locations would be very much appreciated. Please report
your sightings to osprey@owsem.org
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