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Community Corner

The Ospreys And The Alley

Nesting pair of 'fish eagles' calls northeast Queens their home.

Every year like clockwork, an osprey couple returns to a nesting platform in Alley Creek, ready to start a new. 

“It's remarkable really ... what's even more incredible is that every single year since this platform was installed back in 1997, chicks have fledged," said Walter Mugdan, local conservationist and author of the ‘.’

According to Mugdan, without fail a nesting pair arrives around the last week of March; their eggs hatch sometime in the beginning of June and by mid-August observers will begin to see these young chicks practicing with their wings.

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"They [the chicks] will stand near the edge of the platform flapping their wings, trying to catch the wind ... then by fall the entire family migrates south for the winter," he said.

But for many years this wasn't always the case.

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"From 1950 to 1970 we saw a sharp decline in the local population of Osprey which we attribute to the use of DDT that was sprayed in an effort to control the mosquito population of the wetlands ... This practice had a bio-magnifying effect on the Osprey, which suffered as a result," Mugdan said.

Then through the efforts of the EPA who successfully campaigned against the use of DDT the population of Osprey began to rebound.

"The problem was, that by the time the use of DDT was banned in the United States, urban sprawl had seen many of the trees which the Osprey used to nest in cut down ... Forced to find suitable replacements they [the Osprey] began nesting in telephone poles, power lines and the like, which for obvious reasons was problematic," he said.

Faced with a very unique challenge, local conservationists came up with a solution.

"We started working with both the telephone  and utility companies ... putting up nesting stations throughout Queens and Long Island ... much to all of our surprise within weeks the different platforms we had dispersed throughout the area had new tenants," he said.

Today, the Osprey population has rebounded and these birds are once again flourishing in Little Neck and around the United States – a success story that Mugdan points out was the result of a lot of work. 

"Banning the use of DDT was among the earliest victories of the EPA ... and the Osprey families we have now had growing in our backyards is a triumph of the local conservation movement," Mugdan said 

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