News
ENLARGE
An uncommon avian resident of the Roaring Fork Valley has received a new home, courtesy of Xcel Energy and the non-profit Roaring Fork Conservancy in Basalt.
The energy company and the environmental organization cooperated to erect a large nesting platform atop a power pole near the Sanders Ranch between Carbondale and Glenwood Springs. The platform has become the new home to a nesting osprey, a fish-eating raptor not often seen in the valley.
Rick Lofaro, director of field programs for the Conservancy, said he was inspecting the Conservancy’s 54-acre conservation easement in the area last month when he spotted the osprey building its nest. He and wildlife photographer Robin Henry watched the huge bird dive straight into the branches of nearby trees, grasping twigs with its talons as it plunged toward the ground.
“Once it had a hold, it would fold up its wings, let gravity do the rest of the work and just snap it right off,” he said.
The problem, however, was that the osprey was taking the twigs straight to the top of a power pole on a nearby property and building its home perilously close to the wires.
“The bird would come in and land clean every time, but we were scared because it was like a ticking time bomb,” he said. “It was just a matter of time before a wing would hit the wire or a stick would hit a wire.”
Lofaro tracked down Xcel Energy, the owner of the lines in question, and discussed how to prevent the osprey from killing itself. According to Xcel spokesman Wade Haerle, the company is familiar with the problem.
“Small birds can just land on our wires,” he said. “If they’re touching just one wire, they’re fine because they don’t have a complete circuit. But the problem with raptors is they’re so large that their wings will come in contact with two lines and it’ll electrocute them.”
Xcel has an agreement with the Colorado Division of Wildlife under which it contacts the agency when wildlife comes into conflict with company property, Haerle said. In some cases the company will install “cages” that prevent birds from landing or nesting on power poles; in other cases, like that of the Sanders Ranch osprey, Xcel can install platforms that allow the birds to nest safely.
The company erected another nesting stand recently in Debeque Canyon, and has a number of them at power plants around the company’s 12-state service area. On the company’s website, www.xcelenergy.com, several “Bird Cams” record the activities of nesting owls, ospreys and falcons at company facilities from Colorado to Minnesota.
In the case of the local osprey, Lofaro happened to have a nesting platform just waiting to be put to use. The platform was intended for some great blue herons along the Roaring Fork River in the same area, but the herons never took to the Conservancy’s installation. So the platform was just sitting on the ground, waiting to be mounted somewhere else.
On April 17, a three-man Xcel crew (Rich Peterson, Tony Berri and Mike Scott) removed the nest from the pole, installed the platform and then replaced the nest atop the new structure. When the osprey returned later that day, it seemed unfazed by the change.
“The bird is still around, working on the nest,” Lofaro said this month. “We’ve not confirmed that it’s bonded with another bird to actually use the nest. But what we did do was save its life and gave it a chance to nest.”
The energy company and the environmental organization cooperated to erect a large nesting platform atop a power pole near the Sanders Ranch between Carbondale and Glenwood Springs. The platform has become the new home to a nesting osprey, a fish-eating raptor not often seen in the valley.
Rick Lofaro, director of field programs for the Conservancy, said he was inspecting the Conservancy’s 54-acre conservation easement in the area last month when he spotted the osprey building its nest. He and wildlife photographer Robin Henry watched the huge bird dive straight into the branches of nearby trees, grasping twigs with its talons as it plunged toward the ground.
“Once it had a hold, it would fold up its wings, let gravity do the rest of the work and just snap it right off,” he said.
The problem, however, was that the osprey was taking the twigs straight to the top of a power pole on a nearby property and building its home perilously close to the wires.
“The bird would come in and land clean every time, but we were scared because it was like a ticking time bomb,” he said. “It was just a matter of time before a wing would hit the wire or a stick would hit a wire.”
Lofaro tracked down Xcel Energy, the owner of the lines in question, and discussed how to prevent the osprey from killing itself. According to Xcel spokesman Wade Haerle, the company is familiar with the problem.
“Small birds can just land on our wires,” he said. “If they’re touching just one wire, they’re fine because they don’t have a complete circuit. But the problem with raptors is they’re so large that their wings will come in contact with two lines and it’ll electrocute them.”
Xcel has an agreement with the Colorado Division of Wildlife under which it contacts the agency when wildlife comes into conflict with company property, Haerle said. In some cases the company will install “cages” that prevent birds from landing or nesting on power poles; in other cases, like that of the Sanders Ranch osprey, Xcel can install platforms that allow the birds to nest safely.
The company erected another nesting stand recently in Debeque Canyon, and has a number of them at power plants around the company’s 12-state service area. On the company’s website, www.xcelenergy.com, several “Bird Cams” record the activities of nesting owls, ospreys and falcons at company facilities from Colorado to Minnesota.
In the case of the local osprey, Lofaro happened to have a nesting platform just waiting to be put to use. The platform was intended for some great blue herons along the Roaring Fork River in the same area, but the herons never took to the Conservancy’s installation. So the platform was just sitting on the ground, waiting to be mounted somewhere else.
On April 17, a three-man Xcel crew (Rich Peterson, Tony Berri and Mike Scott) removed the nest from the pole, installed the platform and then replaced the nest atop the new structure. When the osprey returned later that day, it seemed unfazed by the change.
“The bird is still around, working on the nest,” Lofaro said this month. “We’ve not confirmed that it’s bonded with another bird to actually use the nest. But what we did do was save its life and gave it a chance to nest.”
