It sounds kind of corny, but the Twin Cities Osprey Project has gone above and beyond.

“The goal when we started this project,” said Judy Voigt Englund, coordinator of the Twin Cities Osprey Project, “was to get to the point where we have 10-15 active nests. This year, we’re at 54.”

The “project,” which is run by the Three Rivers Park District, attempts to monitor and read bands on all birds in the Metro Area. Its core, the area with the highest nest densities, is in and around Carver Park.

On Wednesday, July 16, Englund was at a nest at Eden Prairie’s Miller Park banding the offspring of QH, a bird that was banded in Howard Lake in the summer of 2003.

As an aside, the letter/letter sequence is out of necessity. “We started number/number,” said Englund, “We’ve done letter/number and letter/letter. Now, we’re doing number/letter.”

In any case, the program has been a rousing success. In Eden Prairie alone, a whopping 14 birds, including three this year, have reached the fledgling stage. Amazingly, or not, a male identified as R7 has been responsible for all 14.

My birds

Volunteers do most of the monitoring. That’s the case at the Miller Park site where Minnetonka’s Sue Leizinger has been fixture for the last three years.

“I’ve been doing this for 10 years,” she said. “I got my start doing raptor care at the Richardson Nature Center.”

Armed with a high-powered spotting scope, Leizinger shows up a nest site in the spring.

“The males are the first to return,” she said, of a migration that starts in Central and South America. “And then you wait and wait and wait some more.”

Established pairs occupy the same nest for many years.

Copulation takes place on the nest and eggs are laid, typically two or three.

This is a tricky time for a monitor. “You learn what’s going on by watching,” said Leizinger; “obviously, that would be easier to do from above, rather that from below.”

Using her experience, and confirmed by the bird’s actions, she guesses when the first egg has been laid. From there, she has a good idea when it might hatch; again, the bird’s actions help her out.

“I might be there three, four, maybe five times a week,” she said. “I love it; it’s just so interesting.”

When asked for a reason, she talks of the parenting and how they care for each other.

“When the male feeds the female on the nest, he tears off a little piece of fish and gives it to her,” she said, “And then she’ll give it to one of her babies. Like I said before, it’s just so interesting.”

The scariest time, at least for Leizinger, is when the birds are about to fly.

“They stand on the edge of the nest and look like they’re going to fall right out,” she said. “Half the time I’m holding my breath.”

Window of opportunity

It wasn’t by coincidence that the banding took place on Wednesday.

“It happens at about six weeks,” said Englund. “You want them big enough for the bands, but not too old that they’re a threat to jump out of their nest.”

As you might expect, mom and dad weren’t so welcoming. Their screeching said so.

The whole process took about 20 minutes: With the aid of a utility truck, Englund, along with her daughter, Casey, also a Three Rivers Park District employee, went up in a bucket, from there, they placed each of the babies in its own box, the bucket was lowered and the birds were banded, a Minnesota-specific black ID band on one leg and a Bird Banding Laboratory band on the other.

The birds were put back in the nest and everything returned to normal.

In years past, blood samples were taken.

Staffing doesn’t allow for that anymore. On a related note, Twin Cities Osprey Project funding discussions are slated for the fall. One of the options bandied about is a scaled-back version of the program, one that could be limited to core areas (Carver Park?).

As for the ospreys, they’re going to do what they’re going to do.

“The little ones have to learn everything this summer,” said Leizinger; noting that her birds can neither fly nor fish. “Come fall, they have to head south too.”

Lucky ducks, er, ospreys.