Osprey return to the Elizabeth
(http://www.ccbbirds.org/2014/06/27/osprey-return-elizabeth/)
By Bryan Watts
During the height of the DDT era, breeding ospreys along the Elizabeth River in
Virginia disappeared completely. Some 30 years later, when the Center for
Conservation Biology (CCB) surveyed the Chesapeake Bay osprey population, the
tributary still seemed to be frozen in time. During the historic survey of
1995, only 8 breeding pairs were found. Unlike the other vibrant creeks,
rivers and bays of the estuary where ospreys were thriving, piloting a survey
boat along the Elizabeth gave an eerie flashback to the 1960s and 1970s. Like
its sister superfund tributaries the Anacostia and Baltimore Harbor, the
Elizabeth was a ghost town full of empty nesting structures.
In 2000 and 2001, wildlife contaminants expert Barnett Rattner from the
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center collected egg samples from the Elizabeth
River, Anacostia River, and Baltimore Harbor to compare to three "clean"
tributaries. During this period, eggs collected within the Elizabeth still
contained elevated levels of DDT derivatives and various industrial compounds.
However, productivity was not suppressed and eggshell thickness, an outward
indicator of pesticide problems, had nearly recovered to pre-DDT levels.
Now, more than 40 years after the federal ban on DDT, osprey pairs are
returning to the Elizabeth River in numbers. During the 2014 breeding season,
CCB along with staff from the Elizabeth River Project
(http://www.elizabethriver.org/)resurveyed the entire tributary, mapping 60
breeding pairs and documenting 73 young. One of the more satisfying aspects of
the population recovery to date is that 16 of the 60 pairs are nesting on
osprey platforms erected by private citizens along the shoreline. Aside from
the overall cleanup of the tributary, platforms are one of the most effective
management tools we have for the breeding population.
To build a platform for nesting osprey or to adopt a pair to monitor in future
years, visit our OspreyWatch (http://www.osprey-watch.org/) website.
______________
Michael Wilson
Center for Conservation Biology
College of William and Mary & Virginia Commonwealth University
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
phone: 757-221-1649
fax: 757-221-1650
email: mdwils@xxxxxx
web: www.ccbbirds.org
