BRUNSWICK — Anyone traveling in recent days to North Glynn Recreation Complex off Harry Driggers Boulevard already knows what’s perched atop one of the towering field lights: an osprey and her nest.
As strange as it might appear, it’s not unusual. Ospreys are highly adaptable and often nest on man-made structures, said Lydia Thompson, a board member of the Coastal Georgia Audubon Society.
They choose high platforms, usually about 20 feet above the ground.
Osprey nests are a good sign to Audubon members like Thompson. Their population dwindled in the 1950s and ’60s because of DDT, a pesticide that got into fish, which ospreys consume. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency outlawed the general use of DDT to control insect pests on crops and forest lands and for industrial and commercial use in 1972.
“To help bring the species back, Georgia Power helped bring in man-made platforms,” Thompson said. “The birds used them, but now they’re moving over to other towers.”
That includes cellphone towers, power poles, channel markers and, yes, athletic field lights.
Several platforms can be found in Glynn County, she said.
The birds began to reappear in the 1980s, breeding along the East Coast from Maryland to Florida, and also in Canada.
“I’m pleased they’re coming back,” Thompson said. “We’re seeing more and more of them.”
Ospreys, sometimes called fish hawks because fish is their main food source, have sharp talons and a reversible outer talon, helpful for hunting fish in rivers and lakes.
“They catch [the fish] with their feet,” she said. “As they’re flying along and looking down at the water and see a fish close to the surface, they dive in with their talons up, and, if they’re lucky, they catch a fish. And obviously they’re very lucky because they’re surviving.”
Ospreys weigh from 2 pounds to 4 pounds and have a wing span of 58 inches to 70 inches. They have a brown back and wings and a white crown on the forehead, breast and belly, with a dark eye stripe.
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
