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"Irma and Ozzie's Home Saved by Local Couple"
By Dianne Faucette
This is the story of a special osprey nest in the backyard of Mary and Dick Goodrich in Hilton Head Plantation. For the second year, my husband, John, and I have surveyed the osprey nests on Hilton Head Island under the direction of the LowCountry Institute on behalf of Beaufort County. This year, we observed 30 nests, one of which is located in the Goodriches' backyard.
We first met Mary and Dick on March 18 when they invited us to come and look at their new osprey platform. A storm had recently knocked a branch down in their huge pine tree, along with the nest used by a pair of ospreys since 2002.
Mary told us the history of the nest: "It was August of 2001 when we noticed a pair of ospreys roosting in the top of our large pine tree that overlooks Bear Lake. After several days, they began to collect Spanish moss and small sticks and appeared to be building a nest in the fork of the tree. After what appeared to be a half-hearted attempt, the birds flew off, and over the next few months we forgot about them. Little did we know that they had staked out their future home for many coming seasons.
"In February 2002 the pair returned, completed a large nest, and began their first family of two chicks. Each year since, the pair returns at the end of February ... but never together. The male returns first and spends days fluffing up the nest, which survives from one season to the next. The female returns several days to a week later, as they do not winter together. (Perhaps this is the reason they're able to mate for life.) This marks the ninth year the pair have returned. Twice they raised only one chick, but the other years there were always two."
When the pair returned to the damaged pine tree at the end of February this year, they tried to rebuild. They flew back and forth carrying sticks and moss that would not hold. The ground below the tree was littered with the debris from their efforts. The Goodriches felt that eventually the birds would give up and find another place to nest, so Mary talked with a friend from Ridgeland (Harold Wright) who recommended Donnie Smith, who owns Island Tree Care. Mary called Donnie that evening. He came to the house the next morning, checked out the tree, and said he would design a platform that should work. But he felt there wasn't any time to waste, as the birds were already sitting on their limb in anticipation of nesting. That night he and Harold built a platform, and the next day Donnie was back with his bucket truck.
During the hour it took Donnie to mount the platform, the two ospreys watched intently from an oak tree next door. Donnie then piled the fallen sticks and moss onto the platform to encourage the ospreys to stay and nest. Donnie was hardly out of the driveway when the ospreys went back to the tree and sat on their limb.
Two days after our March 18 visit, we received an excited e-mail from Mary: "Yes! They are nesting! Yesterday morning they sat on the limbs and thought about it ... then started to redecorate the nest by matting it down and bringing in more sticks and Spanish moss. Both of them were sitting in the nest by late afternoon. This morning they were fishing and bringing their catch back to the nest. We are SO excited."
The next morning, Mary and Dick's 87-year-old next-door neighbor told Mary the birds were "making love on the limb" at 7:15 that morning. By noon mama was sitting on the nest. They were both busy all week flying in with sticks and moss and redecorating the penthouse and also doing some fishing.
On May 5 Mary e-mailed, "She is hunkered down on the nest full-time. Papa continues to fish and hangs out either in the nest or on the limb." Mary named the mama Irma after a neighbor. By May 8, Irma (the osprey) was standing on the edge of the nest, with nose down in the nest -- possibly feeding. Mary and Dick conducted a "Name that Bird" contest and chose Ozzie for the papa's name. By about June 1, two little heads began to pop up, making Mary, Dick and their neighbor Irma very happy.
In anticipation of the upcoming chicks' development, Mary described what she has observed for the past eight years: "Soon I expect to watch them flapping their wings in the nest ... Their first step in flying. The second step is that they let their wings elevate them several inches in the air, but still over the nest, and then they sit back down. The third step is they sit on one side of the nest and flap their wings and land on the opposite side. It's fun to watch. And the process should begin soon." And it did.
By July 3, one of the chicks was flapping its wings and elevating itself off the nest a little. On the morning of July 8, one of the chicks was testing his courage. He flapped his wings, flew a foot or so to the limb, and sat there for more than an hour chirping and looking down while his sibling observed from the nest and parents were out of sight. Three days later, both chicks were airborne. On July 18, Mary reported that the chicks had successfully flown. By the first week of August, the parents vacated the nest.
On Aug. 29, the chicks vacated their nest and took off into their world of independence. Mary Goodrich commented, "We believe they are gone for good and we will look forward to next February."
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