Photos from the Field: Ospreys Nest on Abandoned Crab Pot

Life is precious.

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

On the last osprey survey of the season we stumbled upon a new nest — one that was built on an abandoned crab pot. We were drifting on Absecon Bay when summarizing data when we heard an adult making defensive calls at a nest. We looked and saw a low nest on the ground.

Upon closer inspection we noticed that the new nest had young! It wasn’t until we got close and discovered one five week old nestling was on the ground. We knew that young bird would not survive if not placed back in its nest (adults don’t feed young if they fall to the ground and survive).

We carefully picked up the very thin bird and placed it back in the nest and then banded both young for future tracking (1218-00865/00866).

Ospreys are known to build nests directly on the ground and can do well unless the area is overrun with ground predators, like raccoons.

We are thankful for visiting this area when we did, otherwise the grounded nestling would not have survived to have a chance of successfully fledging! We hope to contact the landowner to seek permission to install a nest platform on their land for these birds to nest.

We’re working to summarize data from all our surveys and will be posting some preliminary results later this week along with lots of photos.

3 thoughts on “Photos from the Field: Ospreys Nest on Abandoned Crab Pot”

I absolutely love Ospreys! Hope this little one grows strong and lives a fulfilling life. They are so special!!

Awwwwwww….I hope that little one was able to eat a lot once back in the nest! Needs some meat on those bones. How fortunate that you gave it a second chance to thrive. Fingers crossed.

Ben, this is miraculous. You were surely led there that day at that time. Mary Wood and I have enjoyed your presentations at Pinelands Short Course. We cheer you on in all that you do! Carolyn Foote Edelmann, Lawrenceville

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