Lewis Pate talks us through how he and Justin Grant, both licensed raptor workers, scale 70ft trees to build brand new nest platforms for ospreys, before breeding season beings.
Ospreys prefer the reassurance of a ready-made nest, often returning to the same site year after year. They may commandeer another bird’s nest and readily take to artificial platforms. If you build it they will come.
Loch Arkaig is large enough to support more than one pair of ospreys. Brand new nest platforms installed elsewhere around the loch will encourage other birds to take up residence.
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Transcript
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We're here today building artificial nesting platforms for ospreys. We're going to try to put two or three of these in today, then we're going to try to do another couple later in the year.
I think like many creatures in the environment they want the path of least resistance. So they don't want to expend any more energy than they have to. They're very skilled nest builders and they will build large stick nests in stand alone trees, but one of the problems is they like picking dead trees.
Dead trees tend to be quite prominent, and in this wood back in the 1940s there was a really severe canopy fire. Ospreys will come along - they're obviously very visual - they'll pick a dead tree and they'll stick a nest out on the end of a dead branch. They might rear a couple of young and then that nest, as it gains in weight, becomes unstable and it can drop out. Giving them a strong, well-built structure that might last for 15-20 years in a good, solid live tree confers quite an advantage.
#OspreyCam #Ospreys #LochArkaig #OspreyCam2020 #WoodlandTrust
