This is just a reminder to join us for tomorrow's Cayuga Bird Club webinar, where Paul Paradine and Kraig Senter will describe their work with NYSEG installing Osprey nest platforms.
Register free for the Zoom meeting at: https://tinyurl.com/cbc2022-05 More details below. This will be our last webinar for the season. Suan --- The Cayuga Bird Club’s next monthly meeting will be Monday, May 9, 2022 at 7:30pm. Our speakers, Paul Paradine and Kraig Senter, will be presenting: “Ospreys and Overheads: Working Together to Build and Rebuild” Register free for Zoom meeting at: https://tinyurl.com/cbc2022-05 Prior to the 1990's, there were very few Osprey nests left in the Finger Lakes Region. Environmental pollutants and habitat loss had significantly impacted their historic populations. Today, there are over 140 nests in the Finger Lakes Area with many more throughout the State of New York. The vast majority of these nests are on built structures such as utility or light poles, cellular and steel towers. Paul Paradine and Kraig Senter, along with the invaluable support of their colleagues at Avangrid, have been working on the restoration of Ospreys in the Finger Lakes Region to their historic population estimates for well over a decade. Balancing the need for safe nesting locations for Osprey with the need for safe and reliable power and critical infrastructure is challenging yet extremely rewarding - the result has been an extremely successful reestablishment of a healthy Osprey population in the Finger Lakes and across New York where they now coexist harmoniously with the needs of the public for reliable electric power transmission. In this presentation, they describe the design of nest platforms as well as efforts to make them safe for the Ospreys and the workers who install and maintain the platforms. With the success of nest platforms to increase osprey populations and with the support of NYSEG, they are working to expand the geographic range of this project to other regions in New York state and to develop standardized installation, maintenance and nest data collection activities. They also continue to look for opportunities to partner with other groups and organizations to look for collaborations that will increase the positive synchronization between utility providers and wildlife conservation and management - an endeavor that benefits both. About Our Speakers: Paul Paradine is the Senior Vegetation Manager for New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric (RGE). Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, he has worked with Wildlife and Forest Conservation Projects across the United States and Canada. He began his career with the United States Park Service and the United States Forest Service, working as a Backcountry Biologist and Technician and eventually becoming passionately involved with Endangered Spotted Owl populations in Northern California. He continues to promote Raptor Conservation through successful Osprey Initiatives in NY, Maine and Connecticut. Kraig Senter is a Division Forester and Arborist at New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG). He began his career with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation working with forest health issues under an Early Detection Rapid Response program that located exotic and invasive plants and insects. Later, he began marking commercial timber sales on state land and worked closely with wildlife biologists to create new, early successional habitat. Today, he enjoys volunteering on Out-of-State wildfire assignments and helping to advance an established osprey nest program at NYSEG -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
