The weather forecast may say winter, but nature says it is spring! Our male osprey has returned to his nest located at the Marine Sciences Center at Stony Brook Southampton. Arriving from his winter home in South America, he will do some spring cleaning of the nest, making sure that everything is perfect for when his lady returns roughly two weeks later. Last year was the first time we had a pair build a nest at the Center. Although they did a great job, they never laid any eggs, perhaps because they were still a young pair and that was their first attempt at nesting. Hopefully after another year of traveling the world, they will be wiser and will be successful in raising a family this year.
On Tuesday March 21, Captain Brian Gagliardi moved the R/V Peconic close to the platform so that Marine Sciences Center Manager Chris Paparo could clear out the trash (below) that had collected in the nest. The ospreys will have a good opportunity to create a clean nest and make the move official!
The garbage pulled from the osprey nest, collected either by the wind or put in place by the ospreys when they built the nest last year.
The osprey even braved the snow on Wednesday March 21 to stand guard over Old Fort Pond Bay.
Back in April of 2017, a pair of ospreys arrived to begin building the nest. Marine Sciences Manager Chris Paparo captured the video below.
An Osprey platform would look great at SUNY Maritime