An Osprey nesting season starts well before fish hawks return from South America. Wherever Canada Geese can graze, Osprey nest platforms must be properly cleaned to limit competition from nesting geese and signs must be maintained to keep curious humans at a safe distance. Most times Dick Phillips and I, and occasionally other volunteers, have done our best to help Ospreys at the following three locations: one platform installed by the Division of Wildlife stands in Delaware Lake just south of the State Route 229 bridge over the Olentangy River; four platforms are located at the north end of Alum Creek Lake along Hogback Road; and two platforms are in the north end of Hoover Reservoir at Galena.
When geese nest, they scrape depressions in available material and only add their own feathers to form a nest cup to cradle their eggs. A flat, bare Osprey platform does them no good, but an old Osprey nest, or a new nest in progress, will entice geese. Geese at Alum Creek always compete and nest on one or more platforms. Platforms at Hoover and Delaware have never had problems with geese, so cleaning has never been an annual event.
To keep the public at a safe distance, at least four signs are maintained at least one hundred feet from each platform. The Ohio Division of Wildlife supplies the steel U-posts and signs. I make the T-shaped wooden extensions that hold the signs to their posts. The signs also serve as perches when a 1-1/2 inch thick board projects above the aluminum or plastic placards. The sign text states “PROTECTED SPECIES BREEDING AREA, PLEASE STAY OUT.”
The Corps of Engineers maintains their lakes at summer pool level followed by winter pool level. Summer pool at Alum Creek is 888 feet above sea level; winter pool is 885 feet. Delaware Lake is 915 feet and 910, respectively. We can only do maintenance for our Osprey platforms during winter pool levels. In October 2014, the lake level at Alum Creek started a slow decline until all of our platforms were no longer standing in water by Thanksgiving Day. A few signs needed to be straightened after being snagged by floating debris. Distractions kept us from venturing out in the exposed, muddy lake bottom to clean the platforms and straighten signs. Had we straightened the signs, it would have been a waste of time because in mid-March, 2015, a series of ice jams formed south of Kilbourne on the stream that flows into the lake. When these ice jams give way, a surge of ice and high water flows out of the mouth of the creek at high speed and flattens anything in its path. I have seen ice four feet thick stuck in the muddy bank along Hogback Road. These ice jam breaks can prove fatal to any adventurous souls standing in the ice flow’s path. Fourteen of our sixteen signs were flattened by March’s ice flows in 2015.
Preparation for the 2015 Osprey nesting season started on March 24 when I reinstalled signs around AC-1 near the north shore of Alum Creek Lake. The following weekend, Dick Phillips and I waded through mud boot deep at Delaware Lake to straighten some of its seven signs. Then, back at Alum Creek the following week, Chris Roshon of Preservation Parks joined Dick and I to reinstall and repair 14 signs after he had completed his workday. Two boats were needed: Dick and I crossed the original channel with equipment, poles and signs in my 12-foot Old Town Stillwater canoe while Chris used his kayak. Because of deep mud, teamwork was required to accomplish our task.
Now, for the bad news: because of many distractions, some weather-related, we did not clean off Osprey platforms at Alum Creek prior to the 2015 season. I personally thought that the goose-nesting season would be late due to extreme weather. I was wrong, as geese had claimed platforms AC-3 and AC-4 before four pairs of Ospreys arrived. Fights erupted between the geese and Ospreys that ended with two platforms won by each species.
Two pairs of Ospreys may have lost claim to preferred platforms but they stayed close by and went about building what I call “compensatory nests” along the shore overlooking their lost platforms.
The “parking lot nest” was built on top of a broken trunk of a large oak tree that had lost its top half years ago. The huge tree is anchored into the ninety-foot tall cliff above the lake located 70 yards from the state park’s parking lot off of Hogback Road. The cliff top has always been one of the best locations to watch all four platforms with a spotting scope. Preservation Parks always sponsors “Osprey Homecoming” at this location. (Mark your calendars: the 2016 Osprey Homecoming event will be Sunday, April 17 from 1:00 – 4:00 at the cliff and at Hogback Ridge Park.)
The second natural nest was built almost directly across the lake from the parking lot nest. Recorded in my data book as the “west nest,” I did not give it much hope when I watched Osprey weaving sticks among small, thin branches overhanging the lakeshore. I was proven wrong for the nesting season since the pair fledged three young, but I was partially proven right after the nest fell apart soon after the family had fledged during the first week of August. The parking lot nest also fledged three Ospreys in late July.
As for Ospreys nesting on AC-1 and AC-2, their eggs hatched between May 27 and June 8, but both nests failed sometime between June 19 and July 4, respectively. Heavy rains and high water made the lake water muddy to better hide fish. When lake water is muddy, Ospreys leave the area to hunt neighboring farm ponds, but the intense, all-day rains were another factor. When food is not delivered to the nest, then the attending parent must leave, making the nest vulnerable to eagles, hawks, and other avian predators. The nest at Delaware Lake also failed as it had lake levels in late June that almost reached the nest itself.
The only platforms to produce Ospreys were the two at Hoover Reservoir; each fledged three. The Big Walnut Nature Club has accepted responsibility to maintain signs, including the use of floating buoy signs. The most southern platform, H-1, had been pushed by ice to lean 10 – 15 degrees several winters ago and desperately needs repairing, but the Ospreys made the leaning platform productive in 2015. During past years, repair work was made possible by “Columbus’s drinking water lake” falling enough to expose its lake bottom so work crews could approach the platform, but heavy rains and reality have made repair impossible for quite some time.
Looking ahead to 2016
Who do we thank? Preparation for the 2016 nesting season has started. As I arrived at Alum Creek Lake last November 1, I was pleasantly surprised to see that all nest debris on platforms AC-2, AC-3 and AC-4 had been cleaned off. My best guess is that a pontoon boat and ladder had been used. I subsequently checked with three government agencies and no one knows anything about who might have done a big favor for the project. Nest cleaning is legal anytime after October 1, and I do remember talking to more than one person about the need to clean platforms after each season in order to exclude geese. So, whoever cleaned off the platforms, a BIG “THANK YOU”, TO YOU.
On January 25, Dick Phillips and I carried my aluminum extension ladder out to AC-1 and Dick climbed to the nest and used his pick mattock to chisel away at the 16-inch thick, frozen nest for a successful clean off. After Dick descended, I used my six-foot stepladder to add fresh bedding to two productive Wood Duck boxes nearby. It was a good outing.
Some work on signs is needed at Alum Creek and Delaware Lake, but it is best to wait at this time to see how the ice-flow season goes in March. Several folks have offered to help already, and we will surely contact them to join our team. The average age of the Osprey team must become younger in order for our fish hawks to be welcomed back after returning from Brazil.
Raptor on in 2016!