Audubon waits to erect osprey nest poles
Installing the concrete nesting sites now would cost twice what the group had budgeted.
EVERETT - Housing prices are so high that even osprey are having a hard time finding a new place to live.
It's the fish-hunting raptors' need for a posh water view that could force them to go searching for new homes.
As many as 25 mated pairs of osprey nest on old creosote-coated pilings scattered across the shallow waters of Possession Sound and the Snohomish River delta along the Everett waterfront.
Bird experts believe the local osprey colony is the largest on the West Coast, perhaps even the largest in the nation.
Pounding tides, corrosive saltwater and steady winds are taking their toll on the poles the osprey have taken to nesting on.
Several have fallen over, and more are likely to give way at any time. The Pilchuck Audubon Society is trying to replace some of the worst wooden pilings with five concrete nesting poles.
They've gotten permits to pound them into the mud along Everett's waterfront, and they've raised $40,000 to pay for the work.
They'd hoped to get the replacements installed by a Feb. 15 deadline, while the birds are gone and local salmon and steelhead are still out at sea, said Bill Lider, a Pilchuck Audubon member from Lynnwood.
Now, though, they've come to learn that driving the pilings this late in pile-driving season would cost double what they estimated, Lider said.
The means the birds will be stuck with their existing accommodations for another breeding season.
Waiting has benefits.
"We're hoping for a better price, but we're also hedging our bets and going for more grant money," Lider said.
If successful, Pilchuck Audubon would try expanding the replacement program to all the nesting pilings along the waterfront.
Replacing the pilings is important to protect the local osprey population, but the overall species is not threatened, said Ed Schulz, an osprey researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey.
"The Pilchuck Audubon project will be important to keep at least a group of breeding pairs in the Snohomish River estuary as a colony," he said. "It seems that eventually all or most of the wooden pilings will be gone, so (building replacement nests) is important."
Also, if the birds are forced to go elsewhere, they likely will end up nesting elsewhere, on manmade structures such as cellular phone towers and light poles. That's dangerous for the birds and for people who walk beneath them.
The concrete pilings will be located on land owned by the Tulalip Tribes and two private companies.
This article is republished courtesy of the Everett Herald:
Audubon waits to erect osprey nest poles
