Ospreys nest in cell tower
Published in the Asbury Park Press 4/30/03
The birds have returned to the Rumson cell phone tower for the second year in a row.
By MICHAEL CLANCY
STAFF WRITER
RUMSON -- A pair of osprey have found a novel spot to make a nest and raise a family: a 158-foot cell phone tower.
For the second year in a row, the birds with a 5-foot wingspan have nested in a cell phone tower, designed to resemble a tree, behind the borough public works garage on East River Road.
"I've heard of starlings and house sparrows nesting in cell phone towers, but I've never heard of a bird of prey using the cell phone towers," Scott Barnes, a senior naturalist with the New Jersey Audubon Society, said. "That's a new one on me."
In the 1970s, the number of ospreys had dwindled to about 50 pairs in the entire state, Barnes said. But the threatened species has bounced back and there are closer to 300 pairs of osprey that settle in the Garden State during the warmer weather, Barnes said. There may be close to 20 pairs of osprey that nest in Monmouth County each year, Barnes said.
The osprey come to Monmouth County around the end of March, Dery Bennett, executive director of the American Littoral Society, said.
The osprey, which keep the same mate during their nearly 20-year life span, spend their winters apart from their mate but come back each spring to the nest they built the year before, Bennett said.
The osprey favor high places, preferably with water in sight, to build their nests. Normally, they prefer old dead trees, but too many dead trees have been cleared as development encroaches on shore areas, said Bennett, whose organization is concerned with the preservation of coastal areas.
"It gets tougher for them to find a place to live, so this time they ended up in a cell phone tower," Bennett said. "It's a pretty good sign that times have changed that they've come up with a place like this as a nesting site."
Bennett said, as far as he knows, the cell phone tower does pose any danger for the birds.
The pair of osprey have most likely already laid eggs, which take about 36 days to hatch. Once the egg or eggs have hatched, the fledging will mature for about 60 days before they take flight, Barnes said.
"You'll see the young birds on the edge of the nest, waiving their wings, exercising, flapping," Bennett said. "I guess one day when the winds are blowing and they are flapping their wings, they just take off like 'Whoa!' And they are ready to fly."
Michael Clancy: (732) 643-4076 or
mclancy@app.com
