Utility Crews Make A Stand For Osprey Nests

Wildlife and industry aren’t always poles apart.

Around 9 a.m. this morning, an Avista line crew is scheduled to begin installing one of their 45-foot power poles specifically for a pair of ospreys that are looking to raise a family near Saltese Road.

Inland Power and Light crews have similarly been sharing poles with osprey pairs at Suncrest and Red Lake near Tum Tum.

The company put a nesting platform in a tree rather than evict an osprey pair nosing around power lines at Philleo Lake west of Spangle.

What’s the deal? Utility companies normally try to short-circuit relationships with nesting birds.

“As soon as we find ospreys stacking sticks on our power poles, we’re there taking them down,” said Kent Doffing of Inland Power. “It’s not safe for the birds or good for our customers to have a nest over our lines.”

Steve Palmer of Avista pointed out that nests are made of brush and mud that gets wet and becomes a conductor.

“A stick across a distribution pole can start a fire that can disrupt service, cause danger to homes in the area and fry the birds in the nest,” he said.

But in the cases mentioned above, homeowners intervened. They wanted the “fish hawks” around.

Ospreys thrill virtually anyone in this region who spends much time paddling, boating, picnicking or living along the region’s waters.

These aerial fishers also raise chuckles from luckless anglers who might troll for hours without a strike only to have an osprey dive into the water nearby, emerge with a fish, shake the water from its feathers and fly to a nearby tree for a feast.

Ospreys, which live almost exclusively on fish, are in a category by themselves somewhere between hawks and falcons.

No other North American raptor will dive feet-first completely into the water.

They are the only hawk that has a reversible outer toe enabling it to grasp prey with two toes in front and two in back.

The underside of their feet is lined with little spikes that help hold slippery fish. The claws are completely round for easy penetration, and curved into a third of a circle for a secure grasp.

Rising from the water with its still-wiggling prey, the osprey quickly grips it with both feet and orients the fish head-forward to reduce wind resistance for the flight to a perch.

Often this spectacle is performed within splashing distance of lucky spectators.

Elizabeth Wilton is fond of an osprey pair that had been nesting for several years in a dead tree near Red Lake. Inland Power had put a nesting platform in the tree about five years ago.

Wilton was saddened when the tree toppled last year, killing the nestlings. But she was buoyed to see the pair back this year building a nest on one of Inland Power’s utility poles.

“The company didn’t like the idea so they put up big yellow deterrents,” she said.

The ospreys were not to be deterred.

“Then they started sending people out to rip off the nest every time the birds brought in a few sticks.

“I finally called Inland Power and suggested that instead of spending $20 an hour every week to keep the ospreys from building a nest, they ought to put up another pole and make a home for the birds.

“The guy was really nice and said OK.”

Within a week after the pole and platform were installed, the ospreys were there building a nest.

“When we’re pretty sure the birds are determined to build a nest, this makes sense,” Doffing said.

A similar request prompted the Avista project that should be completed today near the ancient Lake Saltese wetland.

“When we took an osprey nest off an old power line last year, people in a homeowners association started asking if we could replace it,” Palmer said. “They even pooled $700 to pay half the costs.”

The trick in this case was getting through the red tape over easements and liability to put the pole on private land.

“About a dozen people were involved in this to make it reality,” he said.

Last fall, Avista crews worked with state biologists to move an active nest that was threatening power lines near Nine Mile.

The biologists donned rubber gloves, helmets and goggles and removed the chicks while the adults fiercely defended the nest.

Then linemen used their equipment to move the entire nest to a platform that had been installed nearby.

This was no small feat, considering an osprey nest can weigh up to 1,000 pounds.

“The chicks were replaced in the nest and the parents were back with them in 15 minutes,” Palmer said.

Making home sites for ospreys isn’t necessary to boost the species, as it is for bluebirds. This region generally has plenty of pilings and platforms of one kind or another to keep ospreys in business, said Wayne Melquist, watchable wildlife biologist for Idaho Fish and Game.

However, he’s comforted to know that people enjoy these wild creatures enough to stand up on their behalf.

And everyone can applaud utility companies that have learned there’s more than one way to serve their customers.