Wildlife webcam watchers got a new view today when a live-streaming video camera went online showing a pair of osprey nesting over Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park.
The camera’s launch marked a milestone in an osprey introduction program that began in 1993.
“It’s taken some time, but with the osprey cam up as they hopefully begin laying eggs and raising their chicks, we can show off our [park’s] wonderful 17,000 acres of serene beauty,” said Jack Cohen, president of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau, which acquired the grant that funded the webcam project. Mr. Cohen also leads the Moraine Preservation Fund, a nonprofit conservation group that mounted and maintains the camera with the assistance of ITG Networks, a Wexford-based internet support company. The project was sanctioned by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
When construction of the impoundment on Butler County’s Muddy Creek was completed in 1970, Pennsylvania was home to few raptors of any kind. Historically, the osprey was never a common bird in what is now western Pennsylvania. Sometimes called a “fish hawk” because of its feeding preference, it was listed as extirpated, or extinct in Pennsylvania, in 1979. The state had only one known nesting pair as recently as 1986.
The Game Commission’s Lake Arthur osprey introduction project was one of the state’s first and most ambitious. From six imported fledglings raised on several wooden platforms throughout the park, the osprey population has grown to five nesting pairs. Lake Arthur also attracts several bald eagle nesting pairs.
Osprey can exceed 24 inches in length with wingspans of nearly 6 feet. They can be identified by their dark brown backs, bright white breasts and bellies, prominent dark eye stripes, black patches at the apex of their bent wings and a characteristic silhouette. Osprey winter in Central and South America. In the spring mature osprey migrate to northern breeding grounds, where nesting pairs occupy the same nests each year, whenever possible.
“We were worried we wouldn’t be finished [installing the camera] on time,” said Mr. Cohen. “They just got back maybe a week ago.”
Normally, three eggs are laid and female do most of the incubating. The eggs hatch in about 40 days and the mothers brood the young for three weeks. Chicks begin leaving the nest about seven weeks after hatching.
In 1997 Pennsylvania osprey were upgraded from endangered to threatened. In 2017, having met the population standards of the state’s osprey management plan, osprey were reclassified as “recovered” and are protected under the Pennsylvania Game and Wildlife Code and federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
View the webcam’s live-streaming images at www.visitbutlercounty.com/osprey-cam.
John Hayes: 412-263-1991, jhayes@post-gazette.com.
First Published: March 29, 2018, 4:00 a.m.
