Adopt a nest to protect endangered seabird
THE number of eastern osprey nests located across the Tweed have seen some damage in recent months caused by bad weather.
But with the help of the Fingal-based Green Heroes environmental group, the council is calling on the community to adopt an osprey nest in order to protect the endangered seabird.
Green Heroes founder Sarah Jantos said the group was in discussion with the council to organise a more structured protection program to stop future destruction of osprey nests in the shire.
"Council now needs to go through and perform a detailed assessment of every nest to come up with a list of how many there are, what maintenance needs to happen to them and if they need to put up a new one,” Ms Jantos said.
"Once they've made that wish list of what they need to do to support the ospreys, they are seeking expressions of interest through Green Heroes for people in the community to come forward to adopt the nest.
"You can have a look at the list and say you'd like to adopt the one in Kingscliff, it needs such and such repair and I'll commit to that for however many years.”
Ms Jantos said she hoped the community would consider helping the osprey because "they're vital to the health of our waterways and estuaries”.
"I don't think people realise how vulnerable the ospreys are,” she said.
"When the osprey nest in Kingscliff fell down last year, the council found lots of fishing line entangled in the nest and even a hooked lure where the chicks were sitting. It's just deadly to see these types of things sitting in the nest.”
Ms Jantos said she hoped the council would install cameras at the nests to give people a better chance of understanding their birds.
"We're also talking with council to put cameras into the nest so people can log in to see the chicks, see what's in the nest and become more familiar with the ospreys,” she said.
"We feel like the more the community connects with them, the more support we will get to keep caring for them.
"That kind of awareness would be really important for the community to see through the cameras when things like that get picked up and put in the nest.
"Hopefully it would encourage people to be a bit tidier around the waterways and take their rubbish home.”
Ms Jantos said schools could also get involved in adopting a bird.
The group will field all expressions of interest to create a database for the council to start the program after Christmas.
For more information about the osprey adoption program, contact Green Heroes:
