Happily, all 3 nests atop cellular towers in northern Door County (at least the three I watch — Fish Creek, Ellison Bay and Gills Rock) have been reoccupied as summer residences for pairs of ospreys.

The first nest activity I witnessed was on April 4th, which I thought was a little early? and it was definitely very cold for those poor things to be back. But by April 6th both the Fish Creek and Gills Rock nests were occupied and being repaired/redecorated by fastidious females.

Where the Fish Creek and Gills Rock pairs have been rather flamboyant in appearances (they don’t seem to care who sees ‘em coming or going), the Ellison Bay pair has been very low-key. Honestly I thought there wasn’t even a pair at the Ellison Bay nest this year, until last week … I hadn’t seen any nest-building activity, and I’d only seen an osprey perched out on the tower two evenings since early April. (Vs. the Fish Creek male, who seems to spend the majority of every day perched atop his Tower, overseeing his Kingdom, LOL)

Well, finally last week I drove my mobile bird blind (car) up to Tower Storage, and watched the Ellison Bay nest for a good 15 minutes through high-powered binoculars. After about 10 minutes of nothin’, the female osprey poked her head up and looked around. :-P So she’s there; she’s just not one of these “let’s stand out on the edge of the nest and screw around with stuff” types, perhaps. :)

I read online that often the same pair returns to a nest year after year. The Fish Creek and Gills Rock ospreys, I would definitely believe that is the case … they seem very familiar and comfortable with their surroundings. However the Ellison Bay pair, I’m not so sure. While last year’s pair wasn’t excited about human presence, they were nowhere near this low-key. I saw them perched out on the tower, or moving around in the nest fixing it up, a lot more (daily). This year it’s nothing like that.

Without tagging them, of course, we’ll never know. And no, I’m not calling for tagging them either. No need to stress them out like that. I’m perfectly content to watch them from afar and leave them be. ##

Filed under: Birds • Sightings

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