Ornithology Feature: The Osprey’s Return

    With March 21 far behind us and spring most definitely upon us—despite what our chilly Ithaca weather seems to insist—it is prime bird watching season. Birds big and small are heading back from their wintering grounds and returning to Ithaca for their breeding season. A fan-favorite among them are the Cayuga Lake ospreys. Loved by the local community, as made clear by the numerous nest towers dotted around Cass and Stewart Park, the local ospreys had been on the road since early last fall when they took up their more than three-thousand-mile journey to the warm coasts of Central and South America. 

    Their return each spring is a welcome sign of recovery after a drop of populations to almost zero in the 1960s and 70s. The cause of this drop was widespread use of the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). DDT affected the strength of raptor egg shells, resulting in deaths before hatching as the shells broke under their brooding parents. This, along with shrinking habitat and increased water pollution, led to a drastic plummeting in osprey populations nationwide. When DDT was banned in 1972, organizations such as Cornell’s Peregrine Fund assisted the revival of raptor populations. 

    Local communities have also made efforts to bring back these birds, as demonstrated by the aforementioned nest towers, with efforts to encourage private landowners to build more on their properties. The osprey population is still far from healthy, lacking the large groups that provide safety in numbers to avoid pestering by larger raptors such as bald eagles. Yet, their numbers are growing exponentially, making many optimistic for an osprey filled future on the shores of Cayuga Lake. 

    For the moment, nest building is in full swing and the skies above the lake are spotted with birds carrying branches to repair winter damage to the nests they left behind in fall. IHS even has its very own nest location on the rightmost floodlight of Moresco Stadium that is worth checking out next time you’re outside walking laps during gym.