High wire act

Most of us are accustomed to the ospreys that, every spring, return to build nests and raise their young along our lakes and rivers. Boaters who day-trip up the St. Joe or travelers who stop at roadside viewpoints such as at the Albeni Dam are accustomed to the brown and white birds’ chirping cry as they soar on the thermals or scold us from their nests.

However, we who live in Coeur d’Alene don’t have to go farther than Northwest Boulevard because a pair has set up housekeeping on a power pole in the 1800 block, just above an espresso stand. No one knows just what attracted the birds to that particular pole. Maybe they were drawn by the aroma of freshly ground coffee or perhaps they have an addiction to lattes and cappuccinos. It’s hard to tell.

According to Robin Bekkedahl, who is in charge of cultural/environmental permits with Avista Utilities Corp., the birds picked this nesting site all by themselves.

“Our crew installed the platform on the power pole after we became aware that the pair had decided to nest there,” she says. “We try to keep up with potential nesting activity around power poles and if the site is feasible we put a nesting platform in place quickly because we try to avoid moving or bothering nests with eggs or chicks.”

Sometimes a pair will select a pole that is unsuitable for a nest. One such site was on the corner of Stone and Mallon in Spokane. “We had to remove that one,” Bekkedahl says.

There are several factors that must be considered in allowing power-pole nesting.

“While power poles are not ideal nesting sites, ospreys are naturally attracted to the crossbars when the poles are near water,” Bekkedahl says. “But we have to think of the safety of the birds and we also have to think of the safety of our crews. There is the added possibility of a pole fire and subsequent power outages if the nesting material – twigs and branches – cause a short.”

Bekkedahl says the power company-osprey relationship is one of accommodation. New technologies are coming along to discourage the ospreys from nesting in inappropriate sites, she says, but Avista still uses the old standby – the fake owl perched on the power pole’s crossbars. “Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t,” Bekkedahl says.

Fake owls can look pretty realistic. This writer remembers one particular owl that had been placed on a pole near Turner Bay on the east side of Lake Coeur d’Alene. That owl did as good a job of fooling people as it did ospreys because it was not unusual to see a car pulled up beside the highway a few hundred yards beyond the pole and an unsuspecting pair of tourists, cameras in hand, hotfooting it back to take a picture.

Osprey populations worldwide were once in serious decline, but these birds and other raptors such as the peregrine falcon and the bald eagle have made a remarkable comeback since the late 1960s and ‘70s, when DDT was banned. Studies showed the powerful pesticide weakened the egg shells increasing the mortality rate for chicks.

Normally, the female osprey, which is larger than the male, lays two to four eggs. Both parents feed the hatchlings and tend the nest. Chicks may reach maturity at about 10 weeks.

The osprey has a reversible, barbed front toe. When fishing, the hunting osprey hovers at 50 to 150 feet above the water. When it spots a fish, it plummets downward, feet first, often disappearing underwater. After grasping the fish, the osprey surfaces, shakes the water from its feathers and lifts off. Once in flight, the bird repositions the fish so that the head points forward in an aerodynamic position that offers less drag. Opportunistic eagles sometimes swoop in and swipe the fish dinner for themselves.

“People are fascinated with the ospreys,” says Bekkedahl. “Sometimes property owners will ask Avista to build platforms on power poles on their property to attract the birds, but that can have problems, too.”

Ospreys can be messy, scattering twigs and fish parts below.

One summer, Jean Maucieri, who owns a home on O’Gara Bay, had a pair build a nest in a tall tree that overhung her patio.

“Every morning I had to hose off the stones,” she remembers. But for her, it was worth it. Like Avista, she accommodated her pair of ospreys.

And, at least for this summer the curious can sip a latte and watch our urban ospreys raise their young in a custom condo, high above Northwest Boulevard.