03-23-2003, 09:27 PM
Osprey's flight makes history
[url "http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/action.lasso?-database=altpareditorial&-layout=authorsearch&-Response=editorialtableindex.lasso&-op=cn&t2=Michael%20Hoskins&-op=cn&t5=Spinal%20Column&-op=eq&t19=Y&-sortfield=d1&-sortorder=descending&-search"][#0000ff]by Michael Hoskins[/#0000ff][/url] [#0000ff][/#0000ff] [#0000ff]![[Image: blank.gif]](http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/images/blank.gif)
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July 31, 2002 - History was made again at the Kensington Metropark last week, as a recently hatched osprey chick made the first area flight seen by the threatened species since the 1950s.
Officials with the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority (HCMA) say that the male osprey chick -- which has been named Bucko -- took his first flight at about noon on Thursday, July 25, flying around his home at Wildwing Lake at the metropark.
"Everyone is very excited about this," said [b]Barb Jensen, the project supervisor at Kensington. "This is the first real sign of success, and he flew."
Jensen said that Bucko's flight is proof that a five-year effort to repopulate the threatened species in the region is working.
For the past four years, the DNR Natural Heritage Program has transported osprey chicks from Lake Nicolet in the Upper Peninsula to be raised in a hack tower on Wildwing Lake inside the Kensington Metropark. Since male osprey are the only ones that return to the general area where they caught their first fish and learned to fly, the male chicks are tagged with numbered bands before being released at Kensington. Nearly 40 have been released through the program.
In his fifth year of the effort, park officials first confirmed that two osprey pairs migrated back to Kensington during the first week of April. For more than a month, park officials, state biologists, HCMA volunteers and Detroit Zoological Institute have been monitoring one of those pairs that appeared to be nesting atop a platform. Bucko was first seen by park officials during the second week of June, becoming the first osprey hatched in southeast Michigan in about four decades.
Jensen said that the park is presently raising two other chicks, as well, and that they're about six weeks old. She said in another three weeks or so they will reach fledging age, and will "hopefully follow in Bucko's path."
Known as the "fish hawk," ospreys live near water and use their keen eyesight, superb flying skills and sharp talons to catch fish. These birds once lived commonly throughout Michigan, but because of habitat loss and use of DDT and other pesticides, the bird's population declined in the southern region of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
Young osprey are known to migrate to South and Central America, where they remain for three years to mature before returning to the area where they learned to fly.
Though the recently discovered hatching is exciting news for program participants and bird lovers, officials encourage visitors observing the ospreys to talk softly in the area, since increased activity could jeopardize nesting success.
"These birds weren't raised in a busy environment," Jensen said. "They're coastal birds and aren't used to human activity. If they become agitated they could leave the nest, leaving their chicks unattended."
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[url "http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/action.lasso?-database=altpareditorial&-layout=authorsearch&-Response=editorialtableindex.lasso&-op=cn&t2=Michael%20Hoskins&-op=cn&t5=Spinal%20Column&-op=eq&t19=Y&-sortfield=d1&-sortorder=descending&-search"][#0000ff]by Michael Hoskins[/#0000ff][/url] [#0000ff][/#0000ff] [#0000ff]
[/#0000ff] July 31, 2002 - History was made again at the Kensington Metropark last week, as a recently hatched osprey chick made the first area flight seen by the threatened species since the 1950s.
Officials with the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority (HCMA) say that the male osprey chick -- which has been named Bucko -- took his first flight at about noon on Thursday, July 25, flying around his home at Wildwing Lake at the metropark.
"Everyone is very excited about this," said [b]Barb Jensen, the project supervisor at Kensington. "This is the first real sign of success, and he flew."
Jensen said that Bucko's flight is proof that a five-year effort to repopulate the threatened species in the region is working.
For the past four years, the DNR Natural Heritage Program has transported osprey chicks from Lake Nicolet in the Upper Peninsula to be raised in a hack tower on Wildwing Lake inside the Kensington Metropark. Since male osprey are the only ones that return to the general area where they caught their first fish and learned to fly, the male chicks are tagged with numbered bands before being released at Kensington. Nearly 40 have been released through the program.
In his fifth year of the effort, park officials first confirmed that two osprey pairs migrated back to Kensington during the first week of April. For more than a month, park officials, state biologists, HCMA volunteers and Detroit Zoological Institute have been monitoring one of those pairs that appeared to be nesting atop a platform. Bucko was first seen by park officials during the second week of June, becoming the first osprey hatched in southeast Michigan in about four decades.
Jensen said that the park is presently raising two other chicks, as well, and that they're about six weeks old. She said in another three weeks or so they will reach fledging age, and will "hopefully follow in Bucko's path."
Known as the "fish hawk," ospreys live near water and use their keen eyesight, superb flying skills and sharp talons to catch fish. These birds once lived commonly throughout Michigan, but because of habitat loss and use of DDT and other pesticides, the bird's population declined in the southern region of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
Young osprey are known to migrate to South and Central America, where they remain for three years to mature before returning to the area where they learned to fly.
Though the recently discovered hatching is exciting news for program participants and bird lovers, officials encourage visitors observing the ospreys to talk softly in the area, since increased activity could jeopardize nesting success.
"These birds weren't raised in a busy environment," Jensen said. "They're coastal birds and aren't used to human activity. If they become agitated they could leave the nest, leaving their chicks unattended."
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