ENVIRONMENT

Union City Road ospreys are back

Don Reid
Coldwater Daily Reporter

GIRARD TWP. — After three years in a nest on top of a power pole on Union City Road, a family of osprey relocated to the top of a pole next to Hodunk Pond.  

A young weeks-old osprey chick could be seen in a new nest south of Union City Road next to the Coldwater River.  

The young osprey sits on the edge of a nest.

Consumers Energy, concerned about the large bird’s safety nesting on the power pole since 2020, obtained a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permit to move the nest in 2021.  

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects the large predators.   

Consumers Energy replaced the wood on its pole with fiberglass cross arms in 2022. The nest of wood limbs came down and was rebuilt on a pole near the mill pond.  

The large birds rebuilt on the pole along the road in the spring of 2022. Easily visible from the road, the osprey continued as an attraction for those driving by.  

Over the winter, the nest was moved again to a new pole. That location is a couple of hundred yards from the old nest.  

The osprey nest sits on top of a pole next to the Coldwater River. Consumers Energy moved the nest away from power lines.

The materials again came from the old nest in hopes the breeding pair, which return to the same area each spring, would relocate. 

During the move this year, power company crews erected a pole on top of the power pole with plastic plume material attached to discourage the large birds from building there again.   

Prior storyOsprey family moves into Hodunk area

Former Girard Township supervisor Gene Easterday said the new pole is on his property. He can see the birds fly in and around the new nest from his house.  

A trek Memorial Day weekend across the field spotted a chick, about half the size of the parents, on the edge of the nest.  

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said, “Young are full-grown at six weeks and leave the nest at about eight to 10 weeks of age, taking their first flights.”  

Consumers Energy added a pole with attachments to the top of the former osprey home to prevent the birds from rebuilding their nest there.

The birds have been spotted snatching fish, its primary food source, from local waters. They also eat small animals. 

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The osprey likely will spend the summer around the nest. The whole family then heads south as winter approaches migrating like human “snowbirds” to return the following spring.  

---Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DReidTDR