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By Ron Kluesener
Finally, after several years, the osprey platform erected by Save the Beaches volunteers and the Town of Babylon became the home of a pair of young osprey. Late in may, the pair were noticed hanging around West Gilgo Beach on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near the Sea Horse Yacht Club (Seaford Harbor). The area is a perfect location and apparently, in early June, they decided to stay and build their nest.
Pathetic is the word I would use to describe their nest building ability. They began by using eelgrass and mud gathered in the marsh. Each time they dove down to collect a batch, they were attacked by nesting shore birds. To make matters worse, the high winds and heavy rains washed almost everything away at night during horrible thunder storms. Each morning the platform was washed virtually clean.
Regularly, they were visited by another more mature osprey who appeared to be the mother in law most likely making an inspection of the newlyweds home. Sometimes, two osprey would visit the nest and I got the distinct impression they were both parents giving nest building lessons to the young couple. The visitors would bring twigs and small branches and peck them into the mesh covering of the platform in a rather obvious attempt to explain why, without a solid foundation, the mud and eelgrass was washing away. Eventually, the lessons paid off and by mid June, our friends were using twigs and branches of their own. They completed their home in July, too late to have a family this year. I can't wait to see how they handle things when they return next season. They stayed all summer enjoying the weather, often bringing fish back to the nest. By August they were sharing meals. Sometime very late in August, they were gone and it was sad to be reminded that summer was just about over (glad if you have kids!).
Probably, the most significant fact is that this pair of osprey are nesting in an area not very far from a pair located in the bird sanctuary at Tobay to the west. There is also another pair nesting on the east end of the barrier beach around Oak Island and Captree. Both pair seem to have been spotted as far north as Ketchams Creek and Deer Lake (Deer Lot to some, but that's another story). Anyone interested in statistics or more information should call us at the department of environmental control, 631- 422-7640.
As a resident of West Gilgo Beach and a Save the Beaches volunteer involved in the creation of this location, I am especially proud to be a part of the Save the Beaches organization. I would like to thank LILCO as well as the employees of the Department of Environmental Control involved in this project for their assistance and support.
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Papa Osprey watching over the family; Gilgo Aug 2006
By Ron Kluesener
It was a cold windy morning, February 15, 1996, when I first saw him at the nest. At first I couldn't believe my eyes. Was it really an osprey, or was it some other large bird trying the osprey platform on for size? I scurried around looking for my most powerful pair of binoculars tripping over myself with excitement. Was it true, had they returned as I hoped they would? Was there only one or was there a pair? And, if one, which one had returned?
For the next few days I kept a watchful eye and I noticed that our friend was indeed an osprey. I gleefully referred to it as her and she until my wife pointed out that it was still winter and very cold and only a damn fool would leave the warm south to come north so early. Therefore, it had to be the male. Since then, I refer to it as he and him.
Shortly afterward, he disappeared and did not return except for occasional very short visits and never overnight. On the first day of spring, he decided to stay a while and I had the opportunity to study him more closely.
The weather was awful, very cold and extremely windy. The platform was completely bare and it didn't seem to me that he was trying to build a nest. He never stayed for long periods and he never brought food back to the nest.
I was concerned that he might become discouraged by it all and abandon the nest. So I obtained the assistance of the Town of Babylon Department of Environmental Control. They lashed a number of twigs and small branches to the platform in an effort to secure a foundation that the birds could build on.
By early April it was obvious that both birds had returned to build their nest. Each day they gather the material from the marsh and carefully place it among the twigs and branches. Shortly, they will have a home and hopefully they will raise their young and start a new family. What better place than West Gilgo Beach? Welcome back friends.
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By Sallie Phillips
Immediately after the installation of the two osprey platforms at Gilgo, within 4 hours, three young ospreys took occupancy. We believe that they are probably too young to mate and that they are just “hanging out” like teenagers on the corner. They have proven to be quite a distraction for the Gilgo folk who spend as much time as possible at the telescope. Some of the behaviors that we have noticed might be of interest to the STBF newsletter readers.
These ospreys each catch fish twice a day, around 10AM and 5PM. The fish are generally from 6” to 15” long. The birds don’t share their catch and they don’t try to take another bird’s fish away while it’s eating. The preferred dining location is the perch, on the top of the platform, with the fish draped over it. Since there are only two perches, the third osprey to return to Gilgo with its fish must be satisfied with using a platform surface but will fly around with the fish in its talons for a while before settling on one platform.
When flying into the area with a fish, often a crow or seagull will attempt to steal the fish from the osprey’s talons. The osprey doesn’t attempt to land until the would-be thief has given up. This takes a while. The osprey continues flying an evasive course with the hi-jacker in hot pursuit, pecking at the fish from behind and beneath. Generally the thieves are more agile and trickier fliers, but the ospreys outlast them in the end. The entire episode is reminiscent of a fighter plane encounter, a la Hollywood.
The young ospreys at Gilgo have made some attempt to add nesting material to the twigs that were previously attached, but their nesting talent is weak. Any decent wind blows away most of their efforts. On a few occasions they have used plastic bags and one time they added some pieces of balloon.
The Gilgo ospreys will sometimes rest on a heavy timber or other tidal debris at the ground level. It seems to occur when two ospreys are on one platform, the third may opt for the ground nearby. When a fourth osprey visited Gilgo for a while, the fourth was always relegated to the ground.
When the ospreys are off the platforms, the red-winged blackbirds love to perch there. They’ve even been observed trying to discourage an osprey from landing on a platform, unsuccessfully, of course.
Two more platforms are scheduled to be erected at Gilgo’s west end in the fall. Everyone at Gilgo is hoping for at least one nesting pair in the spring of 1997.
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Osprey couple; Gilgo Aug 2006 pleading
Preserve and Protect our Beaches.
Gilgo East 1997
March 21: I observe an osprey on the platform (the leaning one that survived the October storm about 400 yards from my house).
April 3: For two weeks I’ve seen one osprey on the platform for some part of every day.
April 4: A second osprey appears with the first on the platform.
April 6: Bob Paxton confirms that what I have been watching is “mating behavior”.
April 10: The two ospreys are collecting and adding grasses and twigs to the platform.
April 13: 3 new platforms are installed (2 at Gilgo West and 1 at Gilgo East) but the 2 ospreys on the leaning platform are left undisturbed.
April 17: The ospreys spend an hour each morning collecting grasses to add to the nest. This appears to be a “morning only” behavior and the last few collections are always clumps of grass with bog still attached to the roots.
April 18: I have been noticing that one of the ospreys flies over the highway to the beach to collect matter for the nest. Watching more closely to what it brings back, I see bunches of dried eel grass, probably from the high tide line, some with other things like plastic and paper mixed in it.
April 24: I realize that one of the ospreys no longer leaves the nest. Because the platform is tilted away from my view and because there is so much nesting matter I can’t see Her unless she raises Her head and moves, She is so well camouflaged. I can’t really tell them apart, but from now on I will refer to the one primarily on the nest as She/Her and the other, He/Him. I notice that He is sitting on a 2”x2” stuck in the ground, only about 2 feet above the grass about 200 yards east of the platform. It seems that He wants to stay nearby but not on the platform. I have decided that there must be eggs in the nest now.
April 25: I stick 2 other 2”x2”x8’s in the ground out on the meadow, each about 100 yards away from the platform. What I see around 10 every morning, is: She stays low on the nest, barely seen, and then He appears and lands on the perch (attached to the platform). She then moves aside and He settles down on the nest as She flies away. She comes back with the clumps of grass or twigs and they both work on adjusting the nesting matter, sometimes with them each holding the same branch at either end. She makes 5 or 6 trips and the last 2 gatherings are always clumps of grass with bog still attached or bunches of dried eel grass that She dunks in the nearby pond. After Her grass gathering forays She takes a break on the perch, cleaning herself, while He still sits on the nest. I found a book that says that incubation is 38 days. So, I hope we have young by June 1.
April 28: I am pleased to notice that He appreciates the 2”x2”s that I have installed. He spends sometime each day sitting on the western one, which is 300 yards directly in back of my house. He is rarely on the platform now. He is either on wing, on one of the 2”x2” posts or on the other, newly re-installed, platform.
May 2: It is very windy. He, I don’t know how, is comfortably sitting on the 2”x2”, She is on the nest and a third osprey is on the other platform. On a signal from Her, I guess, He leaves the 2”x2” and relieves Her on the nest. She flies over the other platform and the outsider flies away. She stays in the area collecting nesting material for several trips, but with some difficulty because of the wind.
May 5: Everyday now at 8:30AM, I could set my clock by it, He brings Her a fish. Generally, He takes it to the other platform and takes a few bites, or perhaps kills it, first. When He takes it to Her, She carries it off to eat it elsewhere and He settles down on the nest. They never eat on their nesting platform. The other platform or one of the 2”x2”s is generally where She eats. He may get His fill elsewhere, but She stays in the area to eat. It seems to me that the preferred location for eating is a perch (even if it’s only a vertical 2”x2”) over which the fish can be draped and then when the fish gets too small it is taken to the other (vacant) platform to finish off. Bud Maaser and Rudy Stutzmann have picked up on the idea of additional perches on the Gilgo West meadow near the new osprey platforms. Bud, of course, is not satisfied with just 2”x2”x8’ posts and he built them with a cross bar perch..
May 6: I see Him eating what looks like a crab on the 2”x2” nearest my house. I’m still amazed by how agile He is to stand and hold down His prey while eating, all on a 2”x2” (actual measurements 1 1/2” by 1 1/2”).
May 9: After observing the ospreys for weeks now and being accustomed to their behavior, I am alarmed to notice that He is absent all day. She looks up and around from Her place on the nest but never leaves it because He does not relieve Her. I am becoming frantic that He has been killed and I start calling people who might know what I can do. I leave messages all over. I’m considering purchasing some fish and tossing them up to Her. Am I “losing it”?
May 10: He’s back and everything is normal again. I am so relieved.
May 11: After He brought Her breakfast, She is eating on the 2”x2” and He is on the nest. Two other ospreys swoop down over the platform harassing Him. He stays His ground and She leaves Her meal to join Him. Not until both of the invaders fly wide of the platform at the same time do they exchange places. Then He takes off and aggressively chases the outsiders. He even chases them off the other platform. Evidently, He considers the whole Gilgo East meadow, including the vacant platform, their territory.
May 12: I noticed, as usual, He brought Her breakfast fish. She ate it, She cleaned herself and She made a few trips to add nesting material. All the while, He stayed on the nest. When She was done and resumed Her place on the nest He left the area. In 15 minutes He returned with His fish to the 2”x2” perch first and then the other platform. This is the first time that I realized that He caters to Her before himself. I should add a few notes here. First, the fish that He catches are not as large as the fish I saw the ospreys catching last summer. This may only mean that the fish themselves haven’t grown as large yet. Next, He carries the fish in His talons head first aligned under His own body. Lastly, while I make most of my observations in the morning, I have also seen them eating in the evenings between 5 and 7 PM.
May 14: Bud Maaser tells me that the ospreys frequenting the Gilgo West platforms number as many as five and they are probably youngsters, not yet nesting. We check my book which says that sexual maturity is three years. He also tells me that they are catching large fish (one weakfish about 15”, for example.) My pair still seem to have smaller fish, 10” max.. Today I notice that my pair are being more benevolent and allowing a third osprey on the other platform without chasing it.
May 21: All week I have noticed that they are eating from the nesting platform some of the time. I had thought that the practice was a no-no; I guess I was wrong. Sometimes one of them takes a piece of the fish to the 2”x2” perch and leaves the remainder on the platform. Today 4 terns decided they wanted to share the fish on the platform. Anyone who has ever walked near a tern colony knows how the ospreys were dive bombed and harassed. The terns did not succeed and gave up after ten minutes or so. All along crows have been making attempts at the nest, its eggs and, I presume, any fish leavings on the platform. The crows’ attempts have been solitary, however. The tern effort was the first group raid I have observed.
May 29: Their behavior has become pretty predictable. But, no sign of chicks.
June 1: He was on the west platform’s perch. She was standing on the nest platform squawking and agitated. He made no attempt to come to Her. She re-sat on the nest. Later on She flew off the platform to the other platform where He was eating a fish. She circled around Him and hurried back to the nest. She repeated the scene 3 times and eventually did stay on the other platform eating briefly before returning to the nest. This is the first time I have seen the nest abandoned, even for a little while.
June 3: No sign of chicks. I do notice that He drops off a fish for Her, which She takes to the other platform to eat, and He sits on the perch rather than snuggling down on the nest.
June 6: I haven’t seen any young but I think the adults’ behavior has changed. She is standing most of the time instead of sitting low. He brings Her a fish and stays on the platform’s perch while She eats it off the platform. They no longer hang out on the other platform or perches.
June 12: It seems that She is constantly on the platform and He is only absent to catch fish. I’m pretty sure that there are young now but I haven’t seen any.
June 16: I’m so frustrated because I can’t see any chicks. Her behavior tells me that She is feeding something but I can’t see it.
July 1: Voila!! I finally see a youngster. It’s head and neck are so scrawny and grayish/tannish that I’ve probably mistaken It for the nesting material. Only one, and only the head and neck so far. I’ll refer to the chick as It.
July 4: I’ve only seen It briefly each day because It spends It’s time on the back side of the tilted platform. I figured out why I had missed It before. When she was in profile today, It was in back of Her and I mistook It for one of Her legs.
July 6: I saw more of It, a grayish fluffy body attached to the skinny neck. She left It alone on the nest a few times while She flew off and soared around in circles overhead. I’m pretty sure now that there really is only one chick.
July 11: I got a very good look at It. Its back is brownish/ speckled and white is clearly evident on the top of Its head. It was on the south edge of the platform, easily visible but facing away from me. She was facing It and they were both eating while He was watching from the perch. Sometimes it seemed It was eating on Its own but mostly She was feeding It.
July 15: We’re going away for a while. I’m sure that when we return It will be changed quite a bit. The books say that fledging will be in 7 weeks, so It shouldn’t be flying before we get back.
July 24: We’re back and It’s changed a lot: almost no fuzzy down and Its back feathers are darker. It is eating on Its own.
July 27: It’s hopping around the platform flapping Its wings. When It does this Its parents are both off the platform, usually one on the perch and the other on a branch sticking out from the platform. Clearly, they are giving It a wide berth to spread Its wings. It is only slightly smaller that Its parents and Its wing span is pretty wide at this point. It’s getting difficult for me to tell It from Its parents. Its white is a little duller and Its brown not quite as dark. It is the one left alone on the platform.
August 3: It’s been doing some furious wing flapping for a while, but today It got some serious “air time”: 15 - 20 seconds, about 1’ - 2’ over the platform.
August 4: I missed it, but It flew to the other platform. It and one of Its parents were there. It’s hard to tell which is which . I think that It was on the perch and the parent was on the platform. It took off from the perch and dropped down a bit, recovered, dropped again, recovered again and made it to the original nesting platform. Soon afterward Its parent flew straight over to join It. It hopped up to the perch and the parent flew off leaving It home alone.
August 6: It is now clear why the adult ospreys have been protecting the other platform and keeping intruders away since May. The entire Gilgo East salt meadow is their chick’s practice ground. With 2 platforms and 4 perches in the area, the parents have several spots to keep watch over their offspring while keeping some distance. One time today It took off from one of the platforms and nudged one of Its parents, who was perched, facing away, on a 2”x2”. They both flew off, with the chick leading, toward the bay. The chick headed back to Its platform and the parent continued for a while and then headed back to His perch. It looked to me like the chick was trying to get Its parent to go fishing.
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by Sallie Phillips
In 1998 when the Save the Beaches osprey platform team headed by Norm Aripotch and Skip Gardner straightened out the leaning platform at Gilgo Beach we hoped to get a better view of the nest than we had in 1997. Unfortunately, the pair that were on the nest in April 1998 abandoned it in May.
This year a pair again showed up in April and we crossed our fingers. They stayed and in June it appeared that we had two adults with two offspring. By mid July, though, there was only one adult and one youngster.
One theory was that the older and stronger youngster ate the weaker. Another was that the stronger hogged all of the food and the weaker starved.
As to why only one adult was present. One idea was that the other met with foul play or just left. The other posit was that the two parents were both around but only one on the nest at a time while the other hunted for food. Perhaps the latter was the case, because finally on July 25 there were two adult ospreys on the nest with the one youngster. At this writing, August 1, the young osprey has not attempted flight.
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by Sallie Phillips
In the Town of Babylon 6 of the osprey platforms had active nests this summer. There were two other known nests in the town but it is believed that they were abandoned before they produced young.
At Gilgo we were particularly pleased to have three young osprey fledged by July 20th. That platform was erected by Save the Beaches in 1994 and 11 new ospreys have been fledged from there.
There are two regularly successful platforms on Oak Island and one on Seganus Thatch so over the past decade the osprey population in Babylon has grown quite a bit.
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by Sallie Phillips
Finally, with the help of the Paxtons, we set up tree swallow nesting boxes on the salt meadow north of Gilgo East in better locations and with adaptations to discourage English sparrows from taking over the boxes (breaking the eggs, and killing the nesting swallows).
There were seven boxes, of which five were used and produced fledgling tree swallows. We were hoping that they would stay around; perhaps have a second brood; and eat lots of mosquitoes.
But, the two osprey youngsters, born on the platform a little farther north on the Gilgo salt meadow, fledged and these youngsters chose the swallow boxes as landing and resting spots.
The swallows abandoned the boxes, I assume not wanting to confront raptors four times their size. The osprey platform has been active for 10 years and this is the first season that a swallow box was used as a perch, but these two young osprey have used all seven swallow boxes at various times from almost the first day they flew off their nest. The osprey diet doesn’t usually include birds, but I’m not sure that the swallows understand that. And then, perhaps after observing the osprey, a great egret adopted a swallow box to use as a perch. This bird is even larger than the osprey.
On the subject of osprey, the Town of Babylon counted 6 “active” osprey platforms this year. Only 5 of those produced, however. The “active” platform by the Gilgo West lagoon has had a pair of osprey for three seasons that haven’t produced any young. Early in the season the pair is closely watched and there is every indication that there are eggs in the nest. However, sometime in June, each year, the brooding bird on the nest seems abandoned by its mate.
With no nesting duty relief and no food the brooding osprey leaves the nest long enough for it to be taken over by sea gulls. The two osprey come back periodically to the platform but any eggs, of course, are long gone. Now, in August, the osprey pair is still adding nesting material to the platform. The actions of this pair of osprey are a total mystery to observers. They are good nest builders but bad parents.
Last year I wrote about the cormorant colony nesting on the island in Argyle Lake in Babylon Village. Their highly acidic waste had killed off all of the vegetation, including the big tree on which they perched.
The Village had the tree cut down last fall and it was assumed that the cormorants would not return to the barren island this season. Wrong! The cormorants were back this year, maybe not as many, but they again took over the little island in Argyle Lake. Remember the expression, “You can’t fool Mother Nature”. Well you can’t predict her either.
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by Sallie Phillips
Every year since 1996 the East Gilgo STBF installed osprey platform has been the site of successful breeding, averaging 2 fledged youngsters per year. This year on the 14th of March, the adult male osprey appeared on the platform and waited for his mate to arrive from the south.
For three weeks he chased away all other ospreys but finally he gave up and allowed three young ospreys to land on the platform. He left. From April through August the three non-breeding osprey, who, presumably were born there, stayed on or around the platform on the salt marsh meadow at the east end of Gilgo Beach. No one knows if two of these youngsters will end up mating next year but everyone is hoping that it will be the case.
This summer, the osprey pair at the platform along the lagoon at the west end of Gilgo Beach finally produced two fledglings. For years there has been activity at this STBF platform, but this is the first year that young birds hatched and developed to fly off the nest and fend for themselves.
Because this location is closer to observers than the east Gilgo platform, it was possible to see the 3 eggs which were laid. The mother mostly incubated the eggs while the father caught fish for their food. The eggs hatched about 2 days apart and the smallest and last hatchling, unfortunately, didn’t survive very long. It is not uncommon to lose a weaker hatchling as the youngsters aggressively compete for the food brought to the platform by the parents.
It was very exciting to be able to watch these ospreys and their daily activities closely.
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