Osprey Guarding Two Eggs On Nest At Island Beach State Park

ISLAND BEACH STATE PARK - Bay and Bandit have been busy.

If all goes well, the popular osprey pair who make their home in the nest next to Island Beach State Park's Interpretive Center will soon be parents, to at least two little chicks.

Bay and Bandit have been taking turns keeping the rust and cream colored eggs safe and warm, according to the Friends of Island Beach State Park's Facebook page.

Both birds made the arduous journey from possibly as far away as South America at the end of winter. Bandit arrived first, in late March. He spent a few days tidying up the next after the long, harsh winter, until Bay arrived.

Two eggs were spotted over the past day or two. There may even be more before Bay is done. The eggs will hatch in late May or early June and will be carefully watched by Bay and Bandit.

And you can watch them on the Pete McClain Osprey Cam, named after Paul D. McClain, the former deputy director of the state Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife, who brought the osprey back to New Jersey back in the late 1960s.

You can watch the activity from their arrival until the chicks take their first flight here.

Environmental conditions were grim for the large raptor birds back in the early 1970s. Nesting sites were hard to come by, due to the rapid development of wetlands. DDT and other chemicals had been heavily used in 1950s and 1960s for mosquito control and worked their way into the food chain.

By 1968 there were only 12 osprey nests at Island Beach State Park. By 1974, the number had dropped to just one. Osprey eggs laid during those years were too thin and brittle for the chicks to survive the incubation period.

McLain founded the Osprey Project along with Teddy Schubert, a conservation officer with the Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife. The two traveled to Maryland, where osprey eggs were healthier because there was less pesticide contamination and more nesting areas.

McLain and Schubert made the often perilous climbs to osprey nests high in the sky - sometimes dropped in by helicopter, sometimes by clambering up utility poles - and removed some of the healthy eggs.

The healthy eggs were put into incubators, then trucked back to New Jersey. They were then gently placed in osprey nests at Island Beach and down the coast, in the hopes the osprey parents would accept the new eggs.

Within 20 minutes, the adult osprey returned to the nests and began incubating the new eggs. The egg transfer program continued from 1975 thorough 1981, when there was no longer any need for it.
Their work was chronicled in the vintage documentary film "The Osprey - A New Jersey Success Story."

If you've enjoyed watching the Osprey Cam, please make a donation to raise money to support the camera. To donate, click here.

Friends of Island Beach State Park is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization and your donations are tax deductible.

The Friends of Island Beach has also set up an account on FundRazor to help raise money for the Osprey Cam. So far, only $70 of the $5,000 oal has been reached. To make a donation, click here.

Photo: Sandra Bonagura, board member of the Friends of Island Beach State Park.