IKat wrote:I think I read the same about an alternate nest site ....hopefully the Washington pair had a "cottage" located elsewhere....
Indeed, fingers crossed for that. And thanks for the links you added in your previous post. :)
Also, as I've said before elsewhere on the forum, ospreys seem to look at the Netherlands now to (re-)colonise. There have been some breeding attempts in recent years, but it is still unknown if those produced any young. What is sure however, is that they have been building nests themselves, and as a reaction on that local osprey enthousiasts have erected nesting platforms on different locations, but I haven't found any information about how succesful that has been so far.
Building a nest can take several years, if ospreys have to do it themselves, and in order to speed up this process people in the Netherlands build "pre-fab" nests, ready for ospreys to move in and without the hassle of having to collect nesting material. Move in, mate, lay eggs, hatch, and raise the chicks is all they have to do now.
Here an example of the man-made construction of an osprey nest on top of a powerline mast:
Preparations:
Climbing up to the already placed steel construction:
A closer look at the steel construction and some smaller ponds on the background:
Ponds and ditches nearby, seen from the soon to be nest:
Logs and branches are dragged up:
The branches are woven into the steel construction:
Then lined with turf, and as finishing touch some hay:
Testing of the final construction:
Pictures taken from this website:
http://www.rekel.nl/visarenden/
Pretty close to this nest there's also a much larger body of water with plenty of fish, so hopefully one day "oversummering" ospreys ready to breed will use this nest and start to produce their own Unos, Elos and Noris. I'll keep my fingers crossed for that.
From the same website also an interesting article about ospreys in the Netherlands (article in English):
the first breeding attempt? and a further link there to the building of other artificial nesting platforms.