This spring, raptor lovers will be able to get a nest-eye view into one of the Bow Valley’s osprey nests.
On Friday (March 22), FortisAlberta installed a camera on a nesting platform that stands near its power line just off Highway 1A about a kilometre west of Exshaw.
Jennifer Hendricks, manager of environment for Fortis, said the power company plans to install the camera by the end of this week or early next week. She said the live osprey feed should be active on fortisalberta.com by mid- to late April.
“We hope to deploy that at the beginning of nesting so people will see the egg laying stage, hatching, feeding of the young and ultimately, fledging,” Hendricks said Tuesday (March 19). “We find that whenever we place a platform local residents conservation groups, schools, kids, even our employees, are really interested in it and they want to know what the osprey are doing, especially when they come back every year.”
Hendricks said Fortis installs nesting platforms as part of the company’s 2010 Avian Protection Plan. This plan was developed out of Fortis’s partnership with the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre located in Coaldale.
“Our Avian Protection Plan shares the goal of the centre and we work together to promote both of our conservation initiatives,” she said.
As part of that plan, which seeks to protect nesting birds, Fortis surveyed its 35 existing nesting platforms throughout its service, which stretches from the U.S. border north to the Lac La Biche area, and over half are used and active, Hendricks said.
The Bow Valley is home to four nesting platforms.
“What we are finding is if they are placed fairly close to the original nest on a power line, so within 100 metres, and close to their food source, a fish-bearing water body, human disturbance isn’t much of an issue. That nest in Exshaw is right beside the 1A and it’s close to the Lafarge plant and that doesn’t bother them too much.”
Fortis chose the Highway 1A nesting pole, as it’s accessible, but more importantly the osprey pair that use the nest tend to be successful parents.
Power companies throughout Canada and the U.S. use nesting platforms as a means to reduce the risk of osprey being electrocuted and disrupting power.
In August 2011, for example, a nest-building pair of osprey brought down the power in the Bow Valley region after some of their nesting material, likely sticks, came in contact with the power lines. Fortunately, neither bird was injured, but 3,300 customers in Canmore were without power for an hour.
Hendricks said the camera fits within conservation objectives under its Avian Protection Plan as it provides an opportunity for Fortis to help educate the public about osprey and the company’s conservation goals.
“People are interested in it. We get calls from the public all the time about birds nesting on our facilities that we don’t know about so people call us and let us know,” Hendricks said. “They’re a charismatic species and people like to watch them.”
The camera, about the size of an apple, will be mounted on a nearby perching pole.
Fortis plans to test the camera for a few weeks before launching it on the company’s website.
