Project Osprey Watch

Citizen Scientists Tracking the Vineyard Ospreys

Newsletter #1 - Spring 1999

The Ospreys are Coming!
    Ospreys are making their way up the coast and have reached my latitude down here in North Carolina. They should be arriving on the Vineyard any day now. With a bit of luck, I may get this newsletter out to our fearless team of Osprey spotters before the first birds hit the Island. But then again, I'll probably waste so much time fooling around with the publication software that the first males will beat me to the punch.

What is Project Osprey Watch?
    Project Osprey Watch is an effort to monitor the Osprey population on Martha's Vineyard. Because there are so many nests scattered around the island (and because the Project coordinator, Rob Bierregaard, is based in North Carolina), we are enlisting the help of osprey afficianados to track the breeding success of the Vineyard Ospreys.

Why study the Vineyard Ospreys?
    Until the early 1990s, Gus Ben David was able to keep track of all the pairs on the Island. After about 1992, Gus just got too busy to follow all the nests. Shortly thereafter, Gus and many others noted that many of the Vineyard Ospreys were having trouble reproducing and the historically high fledging rates we enjoyed on the Island fell precipitously, with young starving and many historically productive nests failing to produce any young year after year.
    Project Osprey Watch will help us find out how many pairs of Ospreys are on the Island. We'll learn if the birds are still having trouble raising young and if so, if this an island-wide or localized phenomenon.

Citizen Scientists
    A growing number of professional ornithologists are eliciting the aid of amateurs to collect data that would be impossible to obtain otherwise. Important scientific papers are being published thanks to the efforts of such "citizen scientists." Thanks to all the spotters who helped us track the birds through the 1998 nesting season, we know more about the Vineyard population than we have in almost a decade and have begun a first-rate study of the Vineyard Osprey population. Let's keep it going!

The 1998 Season in Review
    1998 was a productive year for the Vineyard Ospreys. Over Memorial Day weekend last year I visited all 111 nest poles on the Island and confirmed 65 nesting pairs. This is down from the peak of over 70 pairs in the early 90s, but 64 pairs more than were on the Vineyard when I climbed into my first osprey nest at Mink Meadows in 1969! 54 young were fledged out of the 50 nests (successes and failures) for which we have data. This is an average of over 1 young per active nest and safely over the break-even rate of 0.88 young per nest needed for an Osprey population to remain stable. So, if our birds continue to produce young at this rate, we should see the population hold its own or even begin to increase.

                       Nests started:           65
                       Successful nests:     33
                       Failures:                     17
                       Data pending:           8
                       No data:                       7

Getting Involved
    We are missing data from a number of nests that were in out-of-the-way corners of the Island where we were unable to find someone to watch them last season. We hope that by including more Osprey watchers this year, we will be able to get better coverage of more nests. Even if you don't have a nest on your property, you can help if you can regularly visit one or more nests. The map below shows (with question marks) the nests that we missed last year. There may be some changes in 1999, but we're sure to have some nests that we'll need help with. We will post the 1999 map on this web site in mid-June. Contact Rob Bierregaard if you are interested in helping out with some of these nests.

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A History of Ospreys on Martha's Vineyard
    While no accurate records exist, there were probably never more than five to ten pairs in the 1900s through 1969, when our studies began. Most nests that are remembered were in old pines left from extensive fires in the 1930s and 1940s.
    Two pairs of Ospreys nested during the late 1960s. Beginning in 1969 artificial nest platforms were provided, originally for the traditional pairs whose nests in dead pine trees were lost in winter storms and later as new pairs were discovered attempting to build nests on power transformers. (Veteran line crews remember knocking Osprey nests off of power poles as far back as the 1950s!)
    Since 1969, 114 nest poles have been erected, and the Vineyard Osprey population increased to a peak of at least 65 (probably more than 70) pairs in 1992.
    The population increased exponentially from 1975 through 1990, more than doubling every five years. Productivity during this time averaged 1.84 young fledged per breeding pair.
Beginning in 1992, we noticed a dramatic decline in the number of young fledged.
    Observations of Osprey's hunting and breeding behavior indicated an island-wide collapse of the Ospreys' prey base.

1999
    In early June, Rob Bierregaard will come to the Vineyard to canvas all the nest poles. We will contact landowners if we have any new nests and hope to enlist the help of some volunteers to follow some of the remote nests. Rob will then reluctantly retreat to the heat of North Carolina and collate the information from the lucky souls who get to spend the summer on the Island.

Tips for Osprey Watching in 1999
    I think everyone I spoke to expressed an interest in continuing to participate in the Osprey survey, so here's what you can do to make our data even more valuable this year:


1. Record your observations in a journal or diary.

2. Make your observations at least weekly, and take notes as soon as you see ANY interesting behavior. Don't tell yourself you'll write it down later - you're almost sure to forget some interesting details that might prove useful.

3. Note the dates you first see the parents around the nest and, later in the spring, feeding their young.

4. Did more than two birds squabble over the nest"?

5. Watch carefully to see how many heads are popping up when Dad brings home a fish-especially just after hatching.

6. Volunteer to make regular visits to one of the nests that we missed last year. If you live near any of the nests marked on the map below with a "?" and want to follow their progress, I will let you know exactly where the nest is.

7. Pay special attention at fledging time. When the young are ready to fly, they'll be as big as their parents, so make sure your count of fledglings doesn't include a parent sitting on the nest with its young.

Contacting "Headquarters"

    If you would like to enlist in the Vineyard Corps of Osprey watchers, have any questions, or want to send us early reports of activity at a nest that you know of, Rob Bierregaard can be contacted by mail at 2405 Westfield Rd, Charlotte, NC, 28207, or by phone (704 333 2405); fax (704 333 2404); or email: rbierreg@uncc.edu. Or you can also reach Gus Ben David at Felix Neck, at 627 4850.

Interesting Websites
    If you have access to the internet, you might be interested in the following web sites:

    Follow Ospreys via satellite transmitters on their migration to and from their wintering grounds in South and Central America at the website of The Raptor Center at the Univ. of Minnesota http://www/raptor.cvm.umn.edu/

    Learn more about "Citizen Science" at Cornell: http://www.birdsource.org

    Birding and ornithology in general: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET

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