It looks like maybe another peak year for Connecticut’s Ospreys, but Osprey Nation needs your help to confirm that

DDT showed how Ospreys and other birds serve as an indicator of hard-to-detect environmental problems.

July 10, 2023 — Halfway through the 10th season of Connecticut Audubon’s Osprey Nation monitoring program all indications are that 2023 will be close to another peak year for these fish-eating raptors.

Osprey Nation volunteers have mapped information for 480 active nests in 2023. Last year, the program mapped 606 active nests. That’s a 126-nest difference, but volunteers have yet to submit data for many other nests that we think are active.

Another 400 or so nests are either inactive or unmonitored — or undetermined, meaning we have a high suspicion that they have chicks or that incubation is taking place but we haven’t confirmed that yet.

The unmonitored nests are where Osprey Nation still needs your help. If you’re interested and can volunteer a few hours a month observing before September, you’re invited to view the Osprey Nation map, find an unmonitored nest, and sign up for it.

The map is here.

A link to the guide for Osprey Nation stewards is here, along with an email address to sign up or for more information.

It’s a fascinating and rewarding task. Over the years, well over 700 people have volunteered. While many have put in their time and moved on, many others have diligently volunteered every year.

It’s important work. Ospreys are among several raptors — Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons are others — that were driven close to extinction in the middle decades of the 20th century. Ornithologists were able to figure out that the birds were eating fish contaminated with the pesticide DDT. The DDT caused the birds to lay eggs with shells that were too weak to withstand incubation.

Year after year of broken shells and unhatched eggs devastated the bird’s population, until by the 1970s in Connecticut there were only a handful of Osprey nests.

But after DDT was banned, the numbers began to climb. Government agencies, conservation organizations and individual residents helped by building nest platforms for the birds.

The experience with DDT showed how birds can serve as an indicator of hard-to-detect environmental problems. Connecticut Audubon started Osprey Nation in 2014 as a way to track the ups and downs of the population, and to collect data that might indicate future problems.

The program is ongoing and always needs more help. To see how you can help the state’s Ospreys, visit our Osprey Nation website.