BPA line crew builds new home for ospreys

To an osprey, transmission poles are welcome nesting sites. But large bird nests on BPA transmission structures are bad for grid reliability, and they aren’t safe for birds. Osprey nests are often 6-foot in circumference, full of sticks and dried grass, and are highly flammable.

“The nests can actually catch fire,” says Jim Turner, foreman III, Salem District. A flashover like that will kill the birds and cause an outage for us. So, it’s best to move the nest if we can.”

Strict environmental regulations protect osprey and do not allow transmission crews to remove nests that contain eggs or chicks.

This past spring, Turner’s Salem crew got a call about a large osprey nest on the 115-kilovolt Boyer-Tillamook line near Beaver on the Oregon coast. The nest was empty, so the team went to work clearing it away and setting up a new place for the birds to call home.

“The trick is to set up a perch that is higher than our transmission structures,” says Turner. “Ospreys prefer the tallest perch they can find to build their nests, which is why we give them a place a little higher.”

BPA’s Salem and Eugene districts worked together and found a 90-foot-tall wood pole, perfect for an osprey perch. In May, the Salem crew planted the pole, furnished with a new nesting platform, near the location of the old nest.

“Within a week, the birds were back building their nest,” said Turner.

The nesting spot is perfect for ospreys as it’s close to the Nestucca River Peninsula where the birds can fish for food and raise their young.

“It’s really nice to see BPA provide a nesting spot for these birds,” said neighbor, Janet Birmingham. “It’s just a couple of hundred feet outside my dining room window. We’ve been watching the adults take care of their fledgling this summer.”

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act implements treaties the U.S. has with Canada, Mexico, Japan and Russia to protect birds such as the osprey. 

“Projects such as this help to protect species from what’s known under the MBTA as ‘take,’ which means we aren’t allowed to pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect a migratory bird species or their offspring,” said Steve Selser, a BPA biological scientist. “BPA takes its environmental protection responsibilities very seriously. We evaluate every project to ensure compliance with many environmental laws, such as the Endangered Species Act and MBTA, to maintain species protection measures.” 

This spring, BPA crews were fortunate to find the nest before the nesting season began, and the new pole and nesting platform were put up in time for the adults to nest.

“Ospreys tend to come back to the same spot year after year. Now that we have this spot established, the birds have a safe place to nest without getting into our lines,” said Turner.