THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503300426
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAM STARR, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Proving that even birds get bored with the same old home, a family of osprey ignored a manmade nesting platform next to Lake Taylor High School's baseball field and recently built a nest inside high wattage stadium lights.
School officials had two problems. They had to disconnect the power to the lights because the dried sticks and twigs could have caught fire. Although the high school's soccer and baseball games are played in the afternoon, the city's recreation leagues practice at night on the field. So that had to stop.
And the nest couldn't be touched. Osprey are a federally protected species whose nests cannot be moved without special permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Had the nest been removed illegally, someone could face a possible prison term and a fine of up to $10,000.
Lake Taylor athletic director Bert Harrell said that the family of osprey has been coming back for about eight years, attracting a number of bird-watchers, and that the school had ``no problem whatsoever'' with the ill-laid osprey nest.
``We'll play around the birds - we'll move a game if we have to,'' he said. ``We only have one night baseball game in May.''
But the osprey made the point moot a few days ago.
The birds voluntarily abandoned their half-built nest above the 90-foot-high light pole that overlooks first base. They traveled right back to their old nesting place, a platform built two years ago by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service atop a light pole in center field. There they rapidly, and out of the lights' way, built a nest so the female can lay her eggs.
Reese Lukei, a raptor specialist and volunteer with the Fish and Wildlife Service, said that osprey like places with a 360-degree view. The birds usually choose manmade structures such as water towers, buoys, chimneys, radio towers and tops of buildings. If the birds had occupied the nest on top of the lights, he said, the school would have been ``stuck with them.'' As it turned out, the osprey were only in the building phase.
``The school had permission from the wildlife service to take down the nest a couple of weeks ago,'' Lukei said. ``It would be a shame that kids can't play soccer because of the nest. They should have done something about it by now.''
And they will. This morning the parks and recreation department will dismantle the nest with the help of a cherry picker and a wildlife expert.
Then the lights can be reconnected, and the nighttime playing can resume. ILLUSTRATION: THIS HOME IS FOR THE BIRDS
MORT FRYMAN/Staff
The ospreys traveled back to their old digs, a manmade platform
built two years ago by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service atop a
light pole in center field at Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk.
by CNB