We are opening the seventh season with our osprey pair, Bea and Jasper, and celebrating our 10th year overall broadcasting images of our osprey nest located off Mathews Drive on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Bea arrived January 10th at 8:25 a.m. and Jasper arrived this morning, January 31st, at 7:08 a.m. The pair have produced eleven offspring in the past six years. Unfortunately for the pair the nest failed last year so we are eager for Bea and Jasper to have a successful 2017 season.
Luckily, the pair still has much of their nest remaining on top of the platform. We were quite surprised to see it after Hurricane Matthew hit during the night of October 7, 2016.
Hilton Head experienced maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, just 1 mph shy of a category 3 hurricane. The island took a blow, but it didn't take long for the ospreys that hang around to be seen and heard around the island. It has been estimated that Hilton Head lost over 120,000 trees and that number could climb. So Bea and Jasper are fortunate to not have to build their nest from scratch. They should have an easier time finding twigs and other material to add to their nest as there are stockpiles of tree debris scattered about the island.
We welcome all of our viewers/bloggers to our site and hope you enjoy Bea and Jasper and osprey chicks.
3 comments:
Many thanks for the 2017 season info.
Wow - over 120,000 trees lost.
Nice close-ups this am, ty.
Beth/Ohio
I'm so anxious to watch this new season develop with Bea and Jasper. It was surprising to see how the nest withstood Matthew's winds since the whole island was heavily damaged. Thanks, Moderator, for starting the 2017 blog!
Vivian, Georgia
Can't wait to watch hoping it s a great year
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