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	Ospreys in 2003

Ospreys Reach New Heights

by Chris Martin  Senior Biologist

Ospreys in New Hampshire had a tremendous breeding season in 2003, matching or setting new record-high levels in all the reproductive statistics that we track, including the number of active nests, successful nests, and young produced. For the first time since Audubon biologists and volunteer observers began monitoring this state-threatened population in 1980, Ospreys soared past 30 active nests and 50 young fledged. In addition, the breeding population continued to expand, moving gradually into new parts of the state outside of core nesting areas. Project Osprey's monitoring and management initiatives continued to increase public awareness and involvement in the local stewardship of Ospreys and their nests throughout the state. Now in its fourth year, the Project Osprey partnership, which involves resource managers and wildlife biologists from Public Service of New Hampshire, Audubon, and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, as well as other cooperators, continues its focus on the enhancement of the Granite State's Osprey population, public education, and fostering cooperation among the corporate community, environmental nonprofits, and state natural resource agencies. This fall, the Project Osprey story reached a large new audience when it was featured on Wildlife Journal, a show on New Hampshire Public Television that highlights New Hampshire's wildlife resources and the people who manage and conserve them. A graph illustrates the Osprey Breeding Status in New Hampshire from 1980 to 2003. Statistics for 2003 A total of 54 young Ospreys fledged from 23 of New Hampshire's 30 confirmed active nests in 2003, which resulted in an average annual productivity of 1.80 young per active (y/active) nest. The 54 young fledged this season was nearly 23% higher than the previous high mark of 44 young recorded back in 1994 and 35% higher than the total of 40 young documented statewide last year. The 30 active nests and 23 successful nests both exceeded, by narrower margins, previous highs also set in 1994. The 1.80 y/active nest far surpassed the 24-year average of 1.28 y/active nest and the previous high of 1.67 y/active nest established in 2000. For the first time, a three-year rolling average (data from consecutive three-year periods) for the number of young Ospreys produced in the Granite State topped 45 young fledged annually. Regional results Great Bay/Seacoast - Six out of eight active nests (75%) in the Great Bay/Seacoast area were successful this year, producing a total of 16 young (2.00 y/active nest). Project Osprey stewards, enthusiastic local volunteer observers coordinated by New Hampshire Fish and Game staff at the Sandy Point Discovery Center, monitored all of the area's nests. Six previously known nest sites close to Great Bay itself were successful again in 2003, and two new nests were discovered on the fringes of the watershed: one on a power line structure in a Deerfield wetland, and the other on a low platform placed in a Hampton salt marsh nearly a decade ago. Neither one of these new nests produced young in 2003, something that is to be expected in first nesting attempts, which often involve inexperienced birds. One new nest platform was installed in a riverbank pine tree on the Cocheco River at the Strafford County Farm in Dover. Plans are underway to install more platforms on the Squamscott River in Exeter and Sagamore Creek in Portsmouth. Merrimack - In the Merrimack River watershed, all six active nests (100%) were successful, producing a total of 14 young (2.33 y/active nest). In August, volunteers verified a new nest located on an oxbow of the Nashua River in Hollis, barely four miles from another Hollis nest that has fledged young each year since 2000. These two nests in Hollis were the only active Osprey breeding sites known in New Hampshire's portion of the Merrimack watershed south of Franklin. In the state's Lakes Region, all four active nests produced young, including three young fledged from a "remodeled" nest platform on a power line on Lake Winnisquam in Belmont. During a major winter-season upgrade of a high-voltage transmission line from Laconia to Franklin, PSNH and Thiro Limitée, their construction contractor, first removed and stored the nest, replaced the utility pole, built a new platform, and then returned the nest to the site prior to the 2003 breeding season. Androscoggin - Nine out of fourteen active nests (64%) in the Androscoggin River watershed were successful this year, producing a total of 20 young (1.43 y/active nest). One widely known and easily viewed nest on the Dummer Ponds Road near Pontook Reservoir was lost when the tree fell in late summer 2002, but the pair relocated to a nearby power line and managed to fledge three chicks in 2003. Another new nest discovered near Sargent Cove on Umbagog Lake also produced three young. A decade-long Osprey population decline at Umbagog Lake appears to have slowed, with one-year and three-year averages for active nests, successful nests, and young fledged all holding steady or rising slightly. For the third consecutive year, we partnered with researchers affiliated with Maine's BioDiversity Research Institute to band chicks and obtain blood and feather samples for mercury analysis at a nest near Pontook Reservoir. Connecticut - Both of the two active nests (100%) in the Connecticut River watershed were successful in 2003, producing four young (2.00 y/active nest). Osprey pairs also showed interest or nest-building behavior at several other new locations in 2003: birds placed sticks on a new platform erected in November 2002 at the Fort Hill Wildlife Management Area in Stratford, and they showed interest in a human-built replica nest created this past spring at Cherry Pond at the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge in Jefferson. Additional activity occurred at a power-line structure near Comerford Reservoir in Littleton, in a live pine located at South Pond in the White Mountain National Forest in Stark, and near the South Bay bog in Pittsburg.