Helicopters, oyster boats and barges called in to save rare raptors from extinction
Helicopters, oyster boats and barges called in to save rare raptors from extinction
Artificial nesting platforms are installed at key coastal sites across South Australia to help the eastern osprey breed after the population dropped to just 50 pairs of birds.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
As a 6.5-metre tall artificial nesting platform was installed in the shallows of Proper Bay at Tulka, south of Port Lincoln this week, a majestic osprey and a white-bellied sea eagle circled above checking it out.
It was the 18th nesting platform installed in South Australia in four years after the plight of the eastern osprey, Pandion cristatu, reached crisis point.
Raptor expert Ian Falkenberg and the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board, with community input, have since installed seven artificial nesting platforms there.
Fledging and surviving to breed will be the chicks' next hurdles, as they face predators and numerous threats including being electrocuted on power poles once leaving the nest.
The platforms, largely funded by private individuals, groups, and foundations, are made by the Ardrossan Men's Shed and many of the remote locations required a helicopter to lift them into place.
Port Neill local Tom Bagshaw previously built two makeshift nests for three birds spotted in the area and hoped the town's new platform would be a safer place for them to breed.
The original article contains 674 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 74%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!