IMPORTANT: Messages from osprey experts

8-18-16 To Everyone , Reply- Diana and Paula There are a lot of nest that dont get cleaned out and here is some info on this subjuect. Also here is what Paul Henry posted last year when this was talked about. Hope this helps you.

ospreyzone August 26, 2015 at 12:01 am – Reply
We are definitely going to lower the tower to a more manageable height after they leave. That’s the only plan as of yet. I’ve seen other nests that the handlers will remove all sticks, branches, material etc. and let the Ospreys start over again. I believe that it’s done to clean out the nest of any insects, mold, mildew etc. but might not be necessary in cold climates. Anyone know more?

Karen August 26, 2015 at 12:25 am – Reply
The only one I know that takes it all down is the Chesapeake family and they are certainly cold in winter. They mention doing it because of parasites but I also think the size of the pole and platform must figure into it. I don’t think the pole would support multiple year buildup.

Jai August 25, 2015 at 7:17 pm – Reply
Paul, just wondering, will this nest be taken down after the Osprey fly south or be left as it is for them to come back to in the Spring? Or…is the weather bad enough that it will take of removing the nest?

Gamma August 26, 2015 at 12:21 pm – Reply
9:12 am PDT Paul, I am no expert but I guess I tend to look at these nests kind of the same way that you look at when to rescue a bird, Yes this nest is made by the Osprey on a man made platform with a camera to view them, but why should it be removed when all other Osprey nests that are not viewed by a camera are left for the Osprey pair to come back to year after year. It seems like all nest I watch you see the big adding onto at the beginning of the season with things added off and on through out, but now towards the end it’s almost like they bring more to ready it for the winter and hopefully their return next year. Just my take on it , but I say leave it :))))) And thank you for giving us this chance to watch nature even at it’s worst.
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Nest Description
Osprey nests are built of sticks and lined with bark, sod, grasses, vines, algae, or flotsam and jetsam. The male usually fetches most of the nesting material—sometimes breaking dead sticks off nearby trees as he flies past—and the female arranges it. Nests on artificial platforms, especially in a pair’s first season, are relatively small—less than 2.5 feet in diameter and 3–6 inches deep. After generations of adding to the nest year after year, Ospreys can end up with nests 10–13 feet deep and 3–6 feet in diameter
—easily big enough for a human to sit in.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Osprey/lifehistory
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Osprey
Osprey share many nesting traits and techniques with bald eagles. Like the eagles the osprey builds a stick nest and returns to it year after year. But there are major differences between what the eagle chooses for a nest site and what the osprey deems appropriate. Ospreys like dead trees, and often build their nests in the very topmost branches. They get away with this latter location because their nests are smaller than those of bald eagles. The nests are also more symmetrical, more rounded and altogether daintier than the gargantuan, sloppy constructions of the bald eagle.
Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the osprey’s nest is daintier on the outside, because the inside can get pretty cluttered. This bird is the “collector” of our title, and will pick up all manner of flotsam and jetsam and cart it back to the nest. Unlike bald eagles, which do the same thing with greenery, ospreys frequently nest out in the open, using exposed trees or man-made platforms. Lacking greenery in their surrounding area but having, as eagles do, a strong desire to carry items back to the nest, the osprey resorts to beachcombing. The results can tell how the world has changed. Writing in Ospreys: A Natural and Unnatural History, Alan Poole lists the oddities found in osprey nests in the nineteenth century (a rag doll; a small doormat; a toy sailboat complete with sail; a feather duster; barrel staves and hoops; a bootjack; 20 feet of hem pen rope; a blacking brush; a remnant from an oilskin rainslicker; and bleached-out bones from domestic animals like cattle and sheep) and the t w entieth (rubber boots; bicycle tires; Hula Hoops; sections of television antennas; and styrofoam cups and plastic hamburger containers).
Ospreys in North America nest from northern Alaska eastward to Labrador; along the Atlantic coast as far south as the Florida Keys and along the Pacific coast as far south as Mexico. Once the nesting season is over almost all migrate, some wintering as far south as Central and South America. First-year birds stay put when spring and the adult birds return to the north. The immatures won’t leave the wintering grounds until their second year, and they won’t breed until they’re three. The older birds return to the site of last year’s nest, the male arriving first. He may greet a female with an undulating courtship flight to entice her to the nest.
Ospreys, unlike bald eagles, which space their nests at least a mile apart, often nest colonially. A colony may contain 50 or more nests. Such gatherings are found only where fish are unusually plentiful. In earlier times Gardiner’s Island in Long Island Sound had a colony of approximately 300 nesting pairs. Some of the Gardiner’s Island ospreys nested directly on the ground, something that has been observed in the Florida Keys as well. Apparently this occurs because suitable trees aren’t always available. A typical osprey nest isn’t on the ground. It’s up high, and unlike the bald eagle this raptor doesn’t seem to mind being out in the open. Ospreys seem to deliberately chose highly visible nesting sites, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that such a site makes the surroundings highly visible to the osprey. Besides tall trees, preferably dead, the birds favor utility poles, billboards, communication towers and even channel marks. One Florida pair slapped a nest together on the boom of a sidelined construction crane.
The species’ preference for out-in-the-open nests may explain why nestling ospreys wear camouflaging coats of mottled down. Aerial predators such as bald eagles, gulls, crows, and ravens would have difficulty in spotting the young from above. The nest is constructed of sticks and branches, and is added to annually, although not to the extent that bald eagles nests are. The average weight of 400 pounds is therefore more modest than that of a bald eagle’s nest but is still sizable.

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