Tweeters,

Here's a copy of a message I originally sent to the BCINTBIRD group
earlier today.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at shaw.ca


----- Original Message -----
From: Wayne C. Weber <contopus at shaw.ca>
To: BCINTBIRD <bcintbird at yahoogroups.com>; WKBIRDS
<wkbirds at yahoogroups.com>
Cc: BC BIRDING <bcprovbirding at yahoogroups.com>; VANBIRDS
<bcvanbirds at yahoogroups.com>; KAMLOOPS NATURALISTS
<knc-info at jsthrower.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 8:40 AM
Subject: NICOLA VALLEY OSPREY REPORT


> Birders,
>
> Five days ago, I sent out a message titled "OSPREY NESTING SUCCESS
IN
> THE NICOLA VALLEY", with a preliminary report on nesting success at
7
> nests. Over the weekend, I visited all but 2 of the 24 nests I have
> been following this year, plus 2 nests that I had not visited
earlier.
> So now I have something to report on 26 nests in the valley
(actually,
> 25 in the valley plus one on the adjacent plateau at Walloper Lake).
>
> Of the 26 nests, 11 were on power poles or pylons, 12 were on
nesting
> platforms specifically built for Ospreys, and only 3 were in trees
(2
> in Ponderosa Pine snags, one in a Douglas-fir snag).
>
> Four of the nests were adopted by Canada Geese for nesting before
the
> Ospreys arrived, and in all of these, the geese did not hatch their
> eggs and vacate the nests until after May 5th. Only one of these
nests
> was later used by Ospreys, and that nest was successful.
>
> Of the 26 nests, 17 were occupied by Ospreys consistently over the
> season (i.e., more than an occasional bird present at the nest).
> Another 5 nests had one or more birds present occasionally, but were
> not considered "active" (i.e., no serious nesting attempt). Of the
26
> nests, there were only 4 at which I never saw an Osprey during the
> season. Two of these were used by Canada Geese early in the season,
> and the other 2 were within 300 metres of a nest which was active.
>
> Of the 16 "active" nests which I visited last weekend (August 3 to
5),
> 13 were successful (had 1 or 2 large young in the nest); only 3 had
> clearly failed. of the "successful" nests, 7 had 2 young, and 6 had
> one young. (However, the young birds in most nests still spent much
> time crouched down, and it is possible that one or two of the
> "1-young" nests actually had 2 young.) This works out to 81% of
active
> nests being successful, with an average production of at least 1.3
> young per active nest, or 1.5 per successful nest.
>
> Only one of the nests (at Shulus village) had fledged young already;
> both young birds at this nest were seen to fly from, and return to,
> the nest. At one other nest (near Quilchena), the 2 young were
> "practising" flying, vigorously flapping their wings and making
short
> hops into the air with the help of a stiff breeze. My impression is
> that arrival and nesting of the birds was 1-2 weeks late this year;
in
> a normal year, many of the young would be fledged at this point.
>
> My data from last year are not as detailed, but it does seem that
> nesting success has been lower this year than last. For example, I
saw
> no 3-bird broods of young. The nesting pair at the Quilchena Hotel,
> which raised 3 young last year, raised only one this year.
>
> So it appears that 2002 has been possibly a below-average, but
> certainly not disastrous, nesting year for Ospreys in the Nicola
> Valley. If Osprey nesting success was as poor as Rick Howie reported
> along the South Thompson River near Kamloops, that pattern is
> certainly not region-wide. I will be very interested to see any
> reports of Osprey nesting success elsewhere in the Northwest, e.g.
the
> Kootenay region of southeastern B.C.
>
> Wayne C. Weber
> Kamloops, BC
> contopus at shaw.ca
>
>
>