ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 25, 1996 TAG: 9603250125
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two mating ospreys whose nest and chicks had to be moved from atop a stadium light pole are back, trying to build another stick nest.
``I told them last year they'd be back,'' said Mitchell Byrd, an ornithologist at the College of William and Mary.
Ospreys are federally protected birds of prey. They are brown on top, white underneath, with 5-foot wingspans and sharp talons. They live near rivers, lakes or bays where they catch fish for food.
There is a problem for the birds trying to build a nest at the University of Richmond stadium this year. The old light poles, which had a convenient worker's platform and fixtures that made a cradle for nest-building, have been replaced. The new ones offer little room for nests.
The ospreys have been flying to the top of several stadium light poles with sticks in their talons, only to have the sticks fall 110 feet to the ground.
Between attempts Saturday afternoon, the ospreys flew back toward a city park and the James River.
``They'll probably keep trying,'' Byrd said.
The ospreys are trying to nest in the same place where they hatched three chicks in the spring of 1995. The chicks were moved and raised by other wild osprey families because university officials worried what would happen when the lights were turned on.
Once ospreys successfully nest in a given location, they are likely to try the same place again and again, Byrd said.
LENGTH: Short : 37 linesby CNB