UPDATE: Community To Rally For New Pole For Riverside Osprey Nest

Apr 10, 2018 5:15 PM

The community is expected to be rallying near the utility pole near the Tyre Masonic Lodge in Riverside on Saturday morning after a construction company contracted by PSEG took down a osprey nest.

Mr. Flanagan, who is organizing the rally, said on Tuesday that he thinks PSEG workers should be moving faster to build a new pole for the pair of ospreys to nest on. The former nest was removed from the utility pole by Elecnor Hawkeye, a Hauppauge-based construction company contracted by PSEG, because it was a fire hazard, according to Ms. Flagler.

"I dont believe PSEG is committed to doing the right thing," Mr. Flanagan said. "We want the pole up by close of business on Friday or we are marching on Saturday."

It appears that the community is already standing with Mr. Flanagan. He created a Facebook page, called "Homeless Ospreys," on Monday and it already garnered more than 300 followers. The Facebook page has several posts from users voicing concerns about the hawks and plans to rally over the weekend.

Ms. Flagler noted that PSEG is planning to erect a new pole once it secures DEC permissions.

"We are in the process of weighing our options to secure a new location and all necessary permissions to erect a pole for the osprey," Ms. Flagler said in an email. "PSEG Long Island is committed to delivering consistent, safe electric power for its customers while balancing our commitment to being a good environmental steward.

"PSEG Long Island will continue to collaborate with organizations to help protect the nesting areas of the osprey on Long Island."

PSEG Spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler on Monday confirmed that her agency removed the nest on Monday.

“We had two reports of arcing wires at that location over the weekend, so we removed the nest today before the birds return and start nesting,” she said in an email. “It is safer for the birds and the electric system to remove the nest before it catches fire and causes an outage affecting a large area of customers. It would be worse if the birds laid their eggs, have chicks and the nest caught fire.”

Because of arcing power lines spotted by the nest this past weekend, the PSEG had asked for the removal of the nest, according to officials from DEC, noting that the situation could have potentially caused a transformer fire, power outages, and destruction of the osprey nest.

Although the ospreys could clearly be seen circling and perching on the utility pole on Monday after the nest was removed, the DEC officials said their information indicated that the osprey nest was inactive.

At this point in the season, osprey can and often do have the ability to re-nest if a nest is disturbed, according to the DEC.

In general, anyone wishing to remove an osprey nest after March 15 needs to contact DEC so the agency can verify the nest is non-active. If a nest is removed after March 15 without proper notification, an individual can face a DEC violation for destroying a nest of a protected bird species and potential federal violations based on the Federal Migratory Treaty Act.

What does one do when their home is bulldozed without notice?

That’s the conundrum a pair of stressed out ospreys found themselves in on Monday morning after a construction company apparently removed their nest, intricately crafted with sticks, moss, bark and grass, that was situated atop a utility pole on Flanders Road in Riverside.

When Terry Flanagan of Flanders heard from a family member that the nest was taken down, he raced over to see what was happening. “I was more than a little bit pissed off,” he recalled later that afternoon.

Mr. Flanagan said he cherished the presence of the nest in his neighborhood—after all, there was a decline of the species several decades ago when the insecticide DDT was causing osprey eggs to thin and lower the birth rate of the birds. He pointed to this decline when he explained his frustration with the nest being taken down.

Since the early 1970s, when New York banned the use of DDT, the species have been making a comeback in the state, according to an osprey fact sheet on the state Department of Environmental Conservation website. Ospreys are still listed as a special concern in the state.

Southampton Town Police Lieutenant Susan Ralph said her department received a complaint about the nest’s removal at 10:46 a.m. on Monday. She deferred all questions about the incident to the DEC, explaining that it is taking the lead on the investigation. The DEC report was not immediately available on Monday afternoon.

It was not clear if there were any eggs in the nest when it was removed from the pole.

Still, Mr. Flanagan described the removal of the osprey nest as “insane.”

“The bird’s nest is in pieces all over the side of the road,” Mr. Flanagan observed. “The two birds were flying around looking for the nest.”

At one point on Monday afternoon, the birds were perched on the utility pole where their nest once sat squealing with distress over their abrupt eviction.

Adult ospreys can grow to be nearly two feet in length, with a four to six foot wingspan, with females typically measuring slightly larger than its male counterparts, according to the DEC fact sheet. Ospreys—which are usually found on the coast—generally feed on live fish, which they snatch from the water with their long, hooked talons.