Osprey in Michigan - A Continuing Success!

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[font "arial, helvetica, sans-serif"][#003366]Osprey in Michigan - A Continuing Success![/#003366][/font]

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The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is preparing for the sixth year of its Osprey Reintroduction Program, and it's asking for your help. The DNR asks all wildlife observers in southern Michigan to report sightings of osprey in southern Michigan, particularly in these areas: [ul] [li] near the Maple River State Game Area north of St. Johns, [li] around Kensington Metropark near Brighton.[/li][/ul]



Osprey sightings can be reported on the [url "http://mi.michigan.gov/emi/1,1607,7-153-10370_12144---,00.html"][#0000ff]DNR website[/#0000ff][/url]. Osprey begin returning from their wintering grounds in late-March and early-April.

[#006400]Program returns ospreys to southeast Michigan[/#006400]



Last year, for the first time in generations, ospreys nested in south-central and southeastern Michigan. These birds were released as part of a reintroduction program in 1998 and 1999.

Since 1998, the DNR Natural Heritage Program has supported the transfer of over 40 osprey chicks from the northern Lower Peninsula to south-central Michigan. After fledging, the young ospreys migrate to South America to winter. Once they mature, between two and three years of age, males often will return to their fledging site to nest.


[#006400]How to report a sighting[/#006400]

Please report only those osprey observed in southern Michigan. Observers should note: [ul] [li] location, [li] time, [li] activity (flying, fishing), [li] markings.[/li][/ul]



It is especially important to observe [#006400]if the osprey is banded and[/#006400], if possible, the number on the band. The birds are marked with a silver metal band on one leg and a green metal band with an alpha-numeric code on the other leg.In recent years, ospreys have primarily nested in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula, with a few nests in southwestern Michigan. But Osprey once lived throughout Michigan. These raptors live near water and use their keen eyesight, superb flying skills, and sharp talons to catch fish. Loss of habitat and the use of DDT and other persistent pesticides were major factors that led to their decline in the southern region of the Lower Peninsula. They currently are listed as threatened in Michigan.



The osprey program is funded through the DNR Nongame Fish and Wildlife Fund, which is primarily funded by sales of the Michigan [url "http://mi.michigan.gov/emi/1,1607,7-153-10370_12141-33042--,00.html"][#0000ff]wildlife habitat license plate[/#0000ff][/url].[/black][/font]
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[davetclown]

Osprey's flight makes history

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[url "http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/action.lasso?-database=altpareditorial&-layout=authorsearch&-Response=editorialtableindex.lasso&-op=cn&t2=Michael%20Hoskins&-op=cn&t5=Spinal%20Column&-op=eq&t19=Y&-sortfield=d1&-sortorder=descending&-search"][#0000ff]by Michael Hoskins[/#0000ff][/url] [#0000ff][/#0000ff] [#0000ff][/#0000ff]
July 31, 2002 - History was made again at the Kensington Metropark last week, as a recently hatched osprey chick made the first area flight seen by the threatened species since the 1950s.

Officials with the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority (HCMA) say that the male osprey chick -- which has been named Bucko -- took his first flight at about noon on Thursday, July 25, flying around his home at Wildwing Lake at the metropark.

"Everyone is very excited about this," said [b]Barb Jensen, the project supervisor at Kensington. "This is the first real sign of success, and he flew."

Jensen said that Bucko's flight is proof that a five-year effort to repopulate the threatened species in the region is working.

For the past four years, the DNR Natural Heritage Program has transported osprey chicks from Lake Nicolet in the Upper Peninsula to be raised in a hack tower on Wildwing Lake inside the Kensington Metropark. Since male osprey are the only ones that return to the general area where they caught their first fish and learned to fly, the male chicks are tagged with numbered bands before being released at Kensington. Nearly 40 have been released through the program.

In his fifth year of the effort, park officials first confirmed that two osprey pairs migrated back to Kensington during the first week of April. For more than a month, park officials, state biologists, HCMA volunteers and Detroit Zoological Institute have been monitoring one of those pairs that appeared to be nesting atop a platform. Bucko was first seen by park officials during the second week of June, becoming the first osprey hatched in southeast Michigan in about four decades.

Jensen said that the park is presently raising two other chicks, as well, and that they're about six weeks old. She said in another three weeks or so they will reach fledging age, and will "hopefully follow in Bucko's path."

Known as the "fish hawk," ospreys live near water and use their keen eyesight, superb flying skills and sharp talons to catch fish. These birds once lived commonly throughout Michigan, but because of habitat loss and use of DDT and other pesticides, the bird's population declined in the southern region of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

Young osprey are known to migrate to South and Central America, where they remain for three years to mature before returning to the area where they learned to fly.

Though the recently discovered hatching is exciting news for program participants and bird lovers, officials encourage visitors observing the ospreys to talk softly in the area, since increased activity could jeopardize nesting success.

"These birds weren't raised in a busy environment," Jensen said. "They're coastal birds and aren't used to human activity. If they become agitated they could leave the nest, leaving their chicks unattended."
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