Osprey Nest in Black Rock

Nesting platform for ospreys

erected in Black Rock

By Noelle Frampton

STAFF WRITER

Updated: 11/27/2009 11:30:21 PM EST

BRIDGEPORT -- Residents of the Burr Creek area of the city's Black Rock neighborhood are rolling out the welcome mat for a new family, although it's far from standard-issue.

This welcome mat is made of wood and sits atop a 35-foot pole. But it does have terrific water views."It" is a new nesting platform for ospreys, the raptors known as sea hawks, which will be returning to the state's shoreline in late March.

The Arthur Street Neighbors Committee arranged for a wooden nesting platform for the large fish hunters to be built and installed last week on an unused utility pole near Burr Creek at the end of the street.

Students at the Bridgeport Regional Vocational Aquaculture School built the 40-inch wooden square with mesh bottom and support beams with help from teacher Charles Johnson. It now sits on top of the pole in a small city-owned field by the water, an area frequented by fishermen, said Madeline Dennis, who spearheaded the project.

Osprey platform with Captain’s Cove Bartlett Tree Expert's Jose Garcia secures

in background. platform to pole.

Bartlett Tree Expert bucket truck installs platform

for Arthur Street Neighbors Committee.

"The neighbors of Arthur Street often see osprey fishing in Burr Creek," said Dennis, an Arthur Street resident and Connecticut Audubon Society employee. "They dive into the water with their sharp claws and they just grab a fish. There was a tall United Illuminating utility pole and there were no wires on it, and I said, 'This is just what osprey love.' We thought this would be a perfect location for a nest. We hope a pair of osprey will discover it and raise their chicks here early this spring."

Dennis worked on the project for about two years, partnering with about 10 other street residents, getting permission from the city and raising $400 from individuals and neighborhood associations to pay for a tree company to install the platform on the 35-feet-high pole.

That was the only cost because the students donated labor, and Wood, Steel and Glass Inc., of Madison, donated the lumber.

Osprey are large, mostly brown or brownish-black hawks, identifiable by white underparts and a distinctive crook formed by its long, narrow wings, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. They have white heads with wide, dark brown stripes from eye to cheek.

The birds of prey spend their winters in warmer, southern climates, and typically return to Connecticut in late March.

Pairs have been known to nest on upper branches of dead trees, duck blinds, channel markers, chimneys, school buildings and utility poles, but they also "readily" use artificial nest platforms such as the new one in Black Rock, which are encouraged in areas with few natural nesting sites by wildlife managers, according to the DEP website.

Osprey pairs lay an average of three eggs in April, and usually return to the same nest site and add new nest materials to the old nest each year. Their large nests are typically made from sticks, seaweed, bones, driftwood, cornstalks and/or trash from nearby beaches and marshes, the DEP reports.

Dennis hopes the new platform will promote interest in the birds since the platform can be seen from nearby Captain's Cove Seaport.

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