Nesting platform hoping to create new home for migratory birds

By Dara Bradley

Build it and they will come. That’s the philosophy of Galway conservationists who have constructed an osprey nesting platform near Oranmore in the hope of luring a pair of migratory birds of prey to mate and breed there.

Ospreys became extinct in Ireland two centuries ago but according to Birdwatch Ireland, there are currently two breeding pairs here – one in Leitrim and one in Fermanagh – thanks to a reintroduction programme by the State.

And members of Conservation Volunteers Galway (CVG) hope a third breeding pair will choose to nest on the artificial nesting platform they built along the inner shore of Galway Bay.

Anti Predator Protection

Constructed by a team of 16 volunteers from CVG, the wooden platform – about 22 centimetres squared – is held five metres off the foreshore by ropes and planks of wooden support.

It has a plastic anti-predator protection to deter mink that would prey on any potential osprey eggs or chicks that hatch there.

The location – at An Sailín near Rinville near Oranmore – was chosen because ospreys have been spotted there every year in recent years as they migrated from southern Africa in April in search of food.

CVG put the nesting platform close to food sources in Galway Bay and Lough Corrib, to attract the fish-eating birds of prey to nest there.

“If they [ospreys] have two chicks, each chick needs one or two fish per day, so they need to be beside an adequate food source.

“The nest is very visible. We put nesting materials, sticks, into it. They’ll know what it is and recognise it is beside a shoreline. It’s all about food,” explained Peter Butler of CVG.

During summer, mullet swim in shallow waters close to the shore in Galway Bay to escape predatory seal. Pike are found in warm shallow waters of Lough Corrib.

“Their natural predator is the osprey. The osprey has great eyesight that is five times better than ours – it drops on fish in shallow waters,” Mr Butler said.

The reintroduction of the eagle in Ireland “has suffered from poisoned meat left out for foxes, but ospreys don’t eat dead meat they only catch live fish”, he explained.

Local fisherman showing support

There is buy-in from locals, including fishermen, who are more receptive to ospreys than other birds of prey.

That’s because ospreys don’t prey on salmon or trout, but they will eat pike, which is a natural predator of salmonid species on Lough Corrib. And mullet is “not something you’ll see on menus”, so ospreys don’t compete with humans for this food source.

CVG, Birdwatch Ireland, Galway Atlantaquarium, and Atlantic Technological University (ATU) collaborated on this long-term project.

In recent years, the National Parks and Wildlife Service developed an osprey reintroduction programme bringing chicks from Scotland to Waterford.

This County Galway project is separate but related and aims to provide a nesting space for ospreys who fly by the bay every year.

“Realistically, we could be waiting five years for a pair to land and say ‘we like this, we’ll be back in April to nest’ . . . but in the 1960s, there were only two breeding pairs of ospreys in Britain, now there are 300 pairs, mostly in Scotland and northern England,” Mr Butler said.

CVG members hope to create similar platforms in Lough Mask, Co Mayo; Ballyvaughan, Co Clare; and along the River Shannon.

“Success is the osprey pick the location, they breed, and they will return.

"Their offspring will want to nest close to that same area. I would expect less than 50% chance of success in three years, and within the next 10 years, realistically, we’d hope it’s a 70% chance,” Mr Butler predicted.