Ospreys are one of those birds that, no matter how many I’ve seen, I still get pumped up every time I see another.
It’s a good time to be a fan of osprey in New England. The Connecticut coast now is practically teeming with the large bird of prey often referred to as the fish hawk. The northern reaches of New England, such as the Lake Umbagog region of New Hampshire, is another fine place to find osprey.
It seems that wherever there is fish, there are osprey — and that’s a good thing, considering in recent memory an osprey sighting was fairly rare in New England. Now the opportunistic home builders are piling up huge mounds of sticks for nests on cell towers, light poles, docks and, of course, man-made platforms specifically designed to attract ospreys.
Ospreys, just like the bald eagle, were nearly wiped out completely because of pesticide use several decades ago. The erasure of the pesticide DDT played a major role in the recovery of the species, just like it did for the bald eagle.
The numbers have recovered enough that Connecticut recently took osprey off the endangered and threatened list. New Hampshire is considering doing the same thing.
Getting an exact count of the number of ospreys in Connecticut is difficult. The last comprehensive study was conducted in 2001 when 176 nests sites were counted and 286 chicks were fledged.
Julie Victoria, a wildlife division biologist with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, hopes to do another study next year. She suspects there are more than 300 nests in the state now and the number continues to increase.
“They’re multiplying faster than I can keep track of them,” Victoria said.
Music to the ears of birders — and environmentalists, for that matter. Osprey, a high-ranking species on the food chain, is a good example of what biologists consider an “indicator” species, whose success as a species bodes well for the eco-system as a whole.
“They’re fish eaters and they are getting enough to eat,” Victoria said.
My personal anecdotal evidence points to a healthy osprey population along coastal Connecticut and northern New Hampshire. I’ve seen them perched on a light poles and I’ve seen a nests on cell towers and lightpoles.
It’s a rare visit to the beach, no matter beach it is, that I don’t see an osprey. My favorite place to see an osprey, of course, is at home. Not that it happens often, but occasionally I’ll glance skyward and see an osprey soaring or flapping overhead.
The fresh-water osprey population is faring well too. I’ll also never forget the time I was sitting behind a blind in Stoddard watching great blue herons tend to their young when an osprey landed on a fallen branch a dozen feet in front of the blind.
John Kanter, a non-game biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, said ospreys are faring well from the northern tip to the southern portion of the state.
In 2007, 49 active nests were found and the department has proposed taking the osprey off the state endangered and threatened lists.
“They are going in the right direction,“ Kanter said.
One simple sentence from the main osprey page of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire _ an organization instrumental in the recovery of the osprey in that state _ says it all. The line reads: “Ospreys are thriving in New Hampshire.“
The sentence applies to all of New England and beyond. We have some work to do with other species, but the osprey seems to be doing pretty well. Every victory is worth celebrating.

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