Kelly and Tweeters,

The area around the Pitt River and Pitt Lake, about 25 miles east of
Vancouver, has long been home to several pairs of Ospreys. However,
the number of pairs has been gradually increasing in recent years.
This year, the Canadian Wildlife Service reports that there are 15
active nests in a distance of less than 10 miles along the Pitt River
and the south end of Pitt Lake. In some places, 3 active nests can be
seen from one spot.

This is probably the largest nesting "colony" of Ospreys on the
southern B.C. coast, where Ospreys are generally thinly distributed.
However, there are some impressive Osprey concentrations in the
southern interior of B.C., in areas like Kootenay Lake and the Arrow
Lakes. This area, along with northern Idaho and central Oregon,
probably has some of the highest Osprey densities in North America.

In the Kamloops and Merritt areas, Rick Howie and I have been carrying
out an informal survey of Ospreys in the last couple of years, to
determine the number of active nests and get some idea of nesting
success. In the Nicola Valley, where I could find only 2 active nests
in 1980, there are more than 20 active nests today. The increase has
been spectacular.

If you are interested in knowing more about the status of Ospreys in
the Kootenay Lake area, you could contact Rita Wege in Nelson, B.C.
(rwege at uniserve.com), who has been surveying Ospreys in that area.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at home.com



----- Original Message -----
From: Kelly Mcallister <mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov>
To: <Tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: West Coast Osprey Colonies


> On Mon, 16 Jul 2001, Ed Schulz wrote:
>
> > I have been watching the Osprey colony in the Snohomish River
> > estuary between Everett and Marysville. This year there are
> > around 54 young birds in 23 nests.
>
> That's remarkable. When the Department of Fish and Wildlife was
surveying osprey nests
> statewide during 1985 and 1990 there were few, if any, known nests
in that area. The
> closest thing to a "colony" of similar size in Washington is
probably on the Pend
> Oreille River near Usk and Cusick. The small ponds and lakes around
Bonneville, on
> the lower Columbia River, once had a good concentration of nesting
pairs that might
> be a considered a colony. I don't know whether that colony has
persisted to current.
>
> I can't think of anywhere else in Washington State that even comes
close. How about
> British Columbia or Oregon?
>
> Kelly McAllister
> Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
> Olympia, Washington
> Reply to: mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov
>
>