Osprey-palooza 2022
Our 2022 osprey chick banding season is all wrapped up! A total of 23 chicks were banded, ranging in age from ~4-6 weeks old. This year’s banding had us travelling with our 18 foot ladder and banding supplies by foot, our 1 ton DCR dump truck, power boat, and canoe to nests in Duxbury, East Boston, Lynn, Marshfield, Revere, and Saugus. Nests were located in the middle of marshland, in the middle of a field next to a high school, beside a bike path, and even in a junkyard! Most nests were accessed by ladder, but in a couple instances a bucket truck was needed.
Special attention and care is always given when banding, but with chicks we need to be extra careful as their feathers are not fully developed, and holding the bird the incorrect way or wrong movements can lead to the chicks bleeding as their feathers are vascularized . This year we also sported rubber gloves when handling the chicks because of Avian Flu. Sean (Belle Isle’s director), Lis (DCR’s Shore Bird protection program team leader), and Norman (MassAudubon) all applied the bands on the osprey with precision, and we had a few others assist with holding the osprey chicks as the bands were applied. *for reference, an osprey chick weighs less than a 2liter bottle of soda.
The osprey banding that we did is part of a bigger Osprey Program managed by Essex Country Greenbelt. Greenbelt started the program back in 2010 in an effort to protect the osprey. Their program involves the building and installation of nesting platforms, monitoring to track their population and health, and to track their migrations. The program also connects people of all ages with the birds – providing an opportunity for education and future conservation efforts.
Sadly our three chicks at Belle Isle didn’t survive (we had banded two). The parents didn’t appear to be the best caretakers, with the father eating a lot of the fish that provide the young nutrients (their only source of food and water). However, we remain hopeful that other osprey that we banded will thrive, and that their banding will provide more information about the species in the future, and that we can learn about these specific osprey’s travels (if they are captured again) and their lifespans.
Special thanks to those who assisted/supported this year’s Osprey-palooza! Essex County Greenbelt, MassAudubon, Friends of Belle Isle, Mystic River Watershed Association, DCR staff (Revere, Middlesex Fells, shore birders), The Town of Duxbury, various community members, and Rebecca for monitoring the osprey in Lynn and Saugus as part of her MassAudubon birder certificate program.
Want to learn more about the Osprey program? Visit Essex County Greenbelt’s site at: https://ecga.org/Osprey-Program
– Guest writer, Heather Famico (Belle Isle Marsh DCR staff)
Stay tuned for shore bird banding!
