The history of the conservation movement on the East End is filled with photos of volunteers from Group for the East End and other environmental organizations raising osprey nesting platforms alongside creeks and bays here, in the hopes of enticing this once-endangered bird to a safe place to raise their young.
Pictured Above: A family of ospreys on their nest | Osey Woiwode photo for Group for the East End
Their work has been wildly successful, bringing the osprey back from endangerment to a ubiquitous symbol of the region, but that doesn’t mean they’re done. Every three years, The Group is now doing an extensive monitoring of osprey nesting sites throughout the East End to see just how these birds are doing.
This year’s final results were released this week, and they show a steady pattern of large numbers of osprey raising young, who will fledge this month and head to the southern hemisphere for several years, before returning here to try to find nesting sites and mates of their own.
This year, Group for the East End’s staff, expert birders, interns and volunteers visited about 500 nexts in the five East End Towns, finding 385 active nesting pairs of ospreys, who produced 386 fledglings.
During the most recent prior survey in 2022, they had found 353 active nests and 505 fledglings.
Why the Decline?
Spring storms that occurred just about the time ospreys are incubating eggs on their nests this year may have contributed to the lower number of fledglings, says Group for the East End Assistant Director of Environmental Education Jennifer Skilbred.
“There was a noticeable reduction in the number of fledglings. This year, we saw a substantial number of fluffy chicks, much younger than we expected them to be,” said Ms. Skilbred. “It could have been the spring storms, which could wipe out a nest. If all the young are gone, an osprey may lay a second round of eggs. But there are a whole bunch of other potential possibilities.”
“We’re seeing more nests built in natural areas, which can lead to easier predation,” she added. “Ospreys, because their diet is almost entirely fish, really rely on healthy coastal waterways. This can be an indicator of water quality. Long Island has problems with nitrogen creating algae blooms, and extra storms can add to water turbulence. If they can’t see, it’s harder for them to catch fish.”
She added that the changing migration patterns of Atlantic menhaden, known locally as bunker fish, a staple of ospreys’ diets, could also be playing a role.
Bald eagle populations are also recovering, and they’ve been seen stealing fish from ospreys, she said, adding that both eagles and great horned owls can eat osprey young.
“The carrying capacity — the amount of wildlife that fits within this location, whether space limited or food limited — we don’t know what that is for osprey,” she added.
The Group for the East End was formed in 1972, at the beginning of a national environmental movement spurred by the recognition of the damage chemicals were doing to the environment. Like with many large raptors throughout the world, osprey eggs were weakened by pervasive use of the pesticide DDT in the mid-20th Century. Suffolk County was the first U.S. government body to ban the use of DDT, in 1967, thanks to the groundbreaking personal research of Dennis Puleston, a conservationist who worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
In 1976, ospreys were listed as Endangered in New York, but, in part due to the DDT ban, habitat restoration and other conservation efforts, they were downgraded to Threatened in 1983 and then became a Species of Special Concern in 1999.
The Group had done monitoring of the nesting osprey population every year between 2018 and 2022, but as the population thrived they switched to a triennial monitoring model, expecting to return to survey the nesting sites this year.
“We still feel this is a healthy population. Don’t ring the alarm bells now, but this absolutely shows us the importance of monitoring,” said Ms. Skilbred. “Long term data really tells a story, much more so than if we say things are good and forget about them.”
Ospreys Like Southold
Ms. Skilbred said Southold Town has the highest number of nests on the East End — 145 of them were active this year. And the group doesn’t monitor several islands in Southold Town that are well-known bird nesting areas — Robins Island, Plum Island and Fishers Island.
“Osprey like to feed in shallow waters, so we don’t see them as much on the ocean side,” said Ms. Skilbred of the success in Southold. “They also like less traffic — less people walking around and cars and trucks. They do naturally prefer more secluded sites. Overdevelopment and loss of natural areas and habitat do have an impact, and land use planning actually does help the osprey.”
As interactions with ospreys have become a part of the daily life of East Enders, The Group has turned its focus to what’s called “hazard mitigation,” educating people about how to handle ospreys nesting on docks, in their chimneys, on top of boats and on electric poles.
“These are places that don’t really fit with peoples’ lifestyles,” she said. “The people we talk to want to do what’s right. We had someone say ‘I’ll let the osprey nest stay on my boat this year, and just not use the boat. It’s a sign that people care and are interested in this amazing, majestic bird.”
Ms. Skilbred also highlighted the importance of beach cleanups in helping ospreys build safe nests.
“I’ve seen fishing line, cords from balloons, and seen chicks caught in plastic bags and adults entangled in them,” she said. “They do build nests with whatever they can find. I’ve seen a dog leash and board shorts hanging out of the nest. Beach cleanups do actually matter. It’s making sure the trash ends up in the right place.”
The Census Takers
Sofia Vallecillo, a former Group intern who now works for the non-profit as an Environmental Associate, and intern Brendan Meyers, both worked on the monitoring project.
They first went out twice in late spring to document pairs of ospreys on the nests, and then went out again in July to see if they’d managed to raise any young.
The two young environmentalists said that after the first round of visits, they now understood the frustrations of census takers, stopping by empty nests and wondering if they’d just caught the ospreys at a bad time, perhaps while they were out fishing.
“I’d never worked with or around osprey before, and it was really cool to see how many of them were in this area,” said Ms. Vallecillo, a Ronkonkoma native who recently completed a degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont in Burlington. “We had a map with coordinates for where they believed the nests would be, based on previous nest sites. In the first phase, I noticed a lot of other birds using the osprey nests. If I were them, I wouldn’t go into the nest of a bigger predatory bird, but the smaller birds will hang out underneath the nest.”
On their trip back to look for fledglings, “I was excited to see them pop their heads out — they’re really small,” she said.
“We would stay around ten minutes, and most times, one would pop its head up,” said Mr. Meyers, who is from Sayville and is pursuing a degree in Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College. “Most of college is taught from inside a classroom, and it’s good to be able to do hands-on fieldwork. I learn a lot more, and it seems like a much more engaging and involved learning atmosphere.”
“On the North Fork, I’ve seen how many people are involved in these things — most of them are a bit older, and I’d like to see younger people getting involved and caring about what’s happening here,” said Mr. Meyer.
Ms. Vallecillo, who minored in Community Development, said her professors often emphasized “improving your local community as a stepping stone to getting greater work done. I saw that in the City of Burlington, but I couldn’t really connect that back to work being done where I live in Ronkonkoma. But coming out here to see such a locally engaged project — people on the East End really care about preserving natural spaces, and access to natural spaces. It’s been inspiring. I’ve been fortunate to have that experience.”
“It’s hard for a lot of young people to stay out here — that’s true for a lot of Long Island,” she said. “Even in Ronkonkoma, my friends are not sure what they’re going to do. For young people who are out here — while you’re here, there are a lot of beautiful natural spaces on the East End, and farther out west. If you can spend at least a day exploring the nature of Long Island, that’s a net positive for you as an individual, and also for the community.”
“Policy work was never part of my focus, but it’s hard not to get involved,” said Ms. Vallecillo. “I want to dip my toes in every facet of environmental work. The Group’s work is incredible, for the amount of staff we have.”
The Future is Not Yet Written
As the two census takers reflected on how their own future is tied to the environment, the young ospreys are also preparing to fly their own nests — if you drive down any road along the bays and creeks here, you will hear them arguing with their parents and loudly vocalizing as humans disturb their surroundings.
“They’ll all be leaving within the next few weeks. The females leave first, and the males and young leave within a few weeks after that,” said Ms. Skilbred. “The young will stay in the Southern Hemisphere for three or four years, until they reach sexual maturity, and then they will come back. We believe they come back to the same area they originally fledged from. It’s not uncommon, their first year back, that they don’t find a nesting spot and don’t find a mate.”
Those birds will fly south again in the fall and try again the following year.
There’s a lot humans can do, she said, can help make their lives a little easier.
Ms. Skilbred said members of the public can call either The Group — which can share the information with its contacts at PSEG-Long Island and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — or the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays if they see an osprey entangled or building a nest in a dangerous place like a utility pole.
And beach cleanups abound here — September 20 is International Coastal Cleanup Day, and numerous East End environmental organizations are planning cleanups (stay tuned to eastendbeacon.com for more details).
“This amazing bird is a symbol of the East End, but their future isn’t set in stone,” said Ms. Skilbred. “The fledgling count is a reminder of the importance of monitoring to keep an eye on these things.”
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