EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated Friday evening (April 10) with fresh information regarding the status of an osprey nest webcam.
PERRYSVILLE — For the past two decades high drama has played out at Pleasant Hill Lake as the osprey population soared.
These apex predators not only held their own but multiplied prodigiously. And they did it with the help of the species that once pushed them to the brink of extinction with pesticides and habitat degradation.
It’s been a struggle as nature itself conspired against the ospreys and their human benefactors. The elements — unrelenting west winds ripping across the lake — thwarted those efforts.
Meanwhile, Canada geese, bald eagles, crows, black vultures and a few humans made life more difficult for them.
In one case, a negligent angler hobbled one of the ospreys with fishing line. The Ohio Bird Sanctuary came to the rescue, removing monofilament line from the bird’s leg and amputating a talon. It was released near the nesting platform at Covert Road and State Route 95.
In another case, a young miscreant shot at an osprey nest on Pleasant Hill Road. A wildlife officer tracked the boy down and persuaded him to mend his ways.
In spite of the obstacles, ospreys and those who rallied to their cause have persisted. With 10 nesting platforms in place — and a few improvised nests — Pleasant Hill Lake’s osprey habitat program is arguably among Ohio’s most successful.
It’s taken a joint effort involving the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Greater Mohican Audubon, Firelands Electric Cooperative, the Energy Cooperative, the Ohio Bird Sanctuary, and alert bird lovers.
Humble beginnings
It all started more than 20 years ago when MWCD and Firelands took the initiative — placing nesting platforms just offshore at the eastern and western ends of the lake.
Ospreys prefer to nest out in the open, at or above treetop level.
What is an osprey?
Ask any fish and the short answer might be “WTF?” Which is shorthand for “death from above.”
But, as a fish, you wouldn’t have time to process the briefest of acronyms. You’re swimming along, stalking small prey. Suddenly you, the hunter, are now the hunted.
Without warning, the surface of the water above you shatters from the impact of a missile plummeting 30 mph — talons first!
You’re three feet below the surface. But, before you realize the waters have parted, two sets of daggers pierce your body and jerk you skyward.
As you break the surface of the water, you’re rotated into position parallel to the osprey’s body as it beats its long powerful wings to gain altitude. You try to shake loose but the talons plunge deeper. You experience a familiar yet unsettling sensation; you’re swimming through the sky.
You are as one with the osprey. And soon will be even more so.
Unlike other raptors, they don’t rely on finesse. Ospreys don’t zigzag their way into and out of nests concealed in the forest canopy.
They’re all about speed — with a wingspan of four to six feet, a highly aerodynamic shape, and legs adapted to align parallel to their bodies to reduce drag while carrying fish. Ospreys’ cruising speed is 30-40 mph. In a dive, they can reach 50 mph or more.
Nesting in the open leaves ospreys vulnerable to arial attack. For the most part, they hold their own against bald eagles and other avian rivals.
Osprey nests are susceptible to marauding earthbound predators, most notably raccoons. Which is why MWCD and Firelands placed the initial platforms offshore.
This was done during winter drawdown, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowers the lake level.
These days a sheet of plastic or metal stapled around the poles prevents raccoons and other critters from climbing up to the nests. It’s become common practice to erect nesting platforms on dry land, sometimes quite a distance from the water.
The elements take their toll
Ospreys quickly took advantage of the new platforms, and the first chapter of Pleasant Hill Lake’s habitat program drew to a close.
Mother Nature wrote the next chapter.
Relentless west winds, a soft lakebed, and gravity conspired against the ospreys. Year after year, the nesting platform poles leaned more and more till it looked as though the ospreys could no longer rebuild their nests.
Yet the ospreys seemed to defy gravity itself, engineering sturdy nests atop the precariously leaning platforms. Ultimately, the poles were in danger of toppling into the lake.
During a winter drawdown Firelands came to the rescue again, replacing the leaning platforms. Crews, along with MWCD personnel, worked under the most trying conditions imaginable — in freezing temperatures with punishing winds whipping off the lake.
Meanwhile, MWCD, Firelands and Greater Mohican Audubon teamed to erect another offshore platform, this one just east of the beach. It was equipped with a webcam to allow the public to observe the nesting process at home or via a video feed in the Welcome Center. This worked great till an osprey pooped on the lens.
That shortcoming was later remedied — again under brutal winter conditions. MWCD and Firelands modified the camera setup, moving the lens out of harm’s way.
A proliferation of platforms
Pleasant Hill Lake’s osprey habitat program became a victim of its own success. A “housing shortage” developed due to a combination of “word getting out” to other ospreys and offspring of the original mating pairs returning to establish nests of their own.
Fledglings migrate to Central and South America, where they remain for two to three years before returning north to breed.
More and more ospreys started showing up, desperately searching for places to nest. Unfortunately, some tried nesting on power poles with tragic results.
The Energy Cooperative got in on the act in 2017 after ospreys built a nest atop one of its poles on Pleasant Hill Road — on a main line feeding Mohican State Park Lodge. It’s believed that a hawk attacked the ospreys, which proved to be its undoing. In the process, the hawk was electrocuted, knocking out power to the lodge.
An Energy Cooperative crew erected a nesting platform in a farm field north of the power line. In spite of the osprey pair’s inauspicious beginnings, they managed to produce a brood of offspring and have enjoyed success year after year.
The Energy Cooperative later placed another platform at State Route 97 and Bunkerhill Road. So far, that one has failed to consistently attract nesting ospreys.
Meanwhile, Firelands placed more platforms in and around the park. That includes one equipped with a webcam near the boat storage yard at Covert Road and State Route 95 (across from Big Fish General Store & Bait).
That camera had been out of service since mid-March but the vendor, HDOnTap, got it back up and running April 10.
Park program specialist Casey Backus said power to the webcam near the beach has been disconnected during work on the Beach Amenities construction project.
“When electricity is turned back on to the beach at the end of May, the beach camera should be up and running,” Backus said.
The webcams can be accessed at https://hdontap.com/stream/237842/pleasant-hill-lake-ospreys-live-nest-webcam/.
Musical nesting platforms
In November 2020, MWCD and Firelands put up a nesting platform at the west end of Pleasant Hill Lake, across the lake from Barron Road. It was equipped with a larger platform, which was designed to attract eagles. But the ospreys had designs of their own and set up housekeeping before eagles could find it.
Canada geese decided what was good for the goose (or ospreys) was good for the gander. Early one spring, before the ospreys arrived, the geese built a nest there. As they did at the beach platform and the original nesting platforms at the east and west ends of the lake.
This can be a problem, but not an insurmountable one. According to area birding expert Gary Cowell, who regularly makes the rounds of Pleasant Hill Lake, Canada geese arrive early in the spring. The parents and offspring vacate the nest soon after the eggs hatch, generally in April.
Ospreys return in late March to mid or late April and have a lot of leeway when starting to nest.
“The geese will nest and leave and then the ospreys will use the platforms after,” Cowell said. “I was concerned about that last year, but it works out OK for both of them.”
Not always, according to Pleasant Hill program specialist Backus.
“Canada geese took over the beach platform last year,” she said in an email. “The timing didn’t line up in the ospreys’ favor. The goose and goslings were still in the nest when the ospreys returned, and the ospreys did not nest on the beach platform last year.”
So, how do goslings with totally undeveloped wings get to the ground or water from such lofty heights? They take an awkward leap of faith just as wood duck babies do — only clumsier.
The goslings, which weigh around five ounces when they vacate the nest, typically survive falls of 100 feet and have even been observed plummeting 200 feet from nests with no apparent ill effects. It helps that they are covered in down to soften the impact and that their bones haven’t yet hardened.
Considering their traumatic entry into the world, it’s no wonder Canada geese never stop pooping.
To add to the geese’s woes, park employees use pyrotechnics known as “bird bangers” to encourage them to nest elsewhere, according to park manager Miller.
This practice is limited to the beach area, where geese also cause problems by using the sand for a litterbox.
At least a dozen nesting sites … and counting
Firelands eventually added three more land-based platforms — one on State Route 95 east of the park entrance, one by the public boat ramp, and another inside the park northeast of the Welcome Center.
With so many nesting platforms in and around the lake, it can be hard to keep track of them all. Add to that random nests the ospreys build in trees and atop a telecommunications tower. The number of active nests changes from year to year. Perhaps it’s time to map the sites and standardize the names of each location.
The next chapter of the Pleasant Hill osprey saga is being written in an era prone to haphazard development and deregulation of environmental toxins. Whether that story has a happy ending will depend on the ability to adapt — for ospreys and human beings.
