Environmental Programs - Osprey Habitats
A bird’s-eye view in real time
Get up-close and personal with our resident ospreys via Web camera link
2013 Ospreys...
Ospreys Return to Palmetto Electric Communications Tower
A sure sign that spring is approaching is the return of ospreys to the Lowcountry. Bea and Jasper, our resident breeding osprey pair, have returned for their third year at Palmetto Electric's Communication Tower located on Mathews Drive on Hilton Head Island.
Close-up images of the bird's distinctive markings enabled our osprey team to identify the returning pair. Recently, we installed a new camera to watch the couple and their progress for the upcoming season.
Female ospreys normally produce about 20 chicks in a lifetime. Bea and Jasper have produced four fledglings out of six eggs in the past two years.
Generally the female will lay two to four eggs in late March. The eggs usually are creamy white in color, heavily blotched or marked with dark brown or reddish brown.
They then hatch about six weeks later.
Palmetto Electric has been broadcasting their osprey cam since 2007. Since then we have had four different osprey pairs occupying the nest with six fledglings.
General Information
Because we are part of the community we serve, Palmetto Electric Cooperative is concerned
about protecting and preserving our environment. As with the Loggerhead Sea Turtles, we are
also concerned with the preservation of Ospreys in the Lowcountry.
Thirty to 40 years ago Ospreys faced possible extinction, because the species
couldn’t produce enough young to maintain the population. Since the ban of DDT
(a powerful insecticide) in the early 1970s, the Ospreys have made a remarkable recovery.
Other restoration strategies, such as artificial nest construction, also have helped.
For years electric transmission towers have served as nesting homes for the migratory osprey.
As you drive across the Intracoastal Waterway to Hilton Head Island, you can spot the Ospreys
congregating on the towers during the spring and summer months. Another tower—in Palmetto
Electric’s own backyard—has also served as home to Osprey since 1988.
Each spring our feathered friends return to reside high atop the communications tower
that overlooks Palmetto Electric’s Hilton Head Island operations center. Bea and Jasper have returned for their second
year and have produced three eggs this season. Join Palmetto Electric as
we get a bird’s-eye view thanks to a Web camera mounted nearby.
Learn more about ospreys from our Osprey FAQ's, read this year's osprey blog and view current osprey photos
as well as review past photographs from our osprey gallery!
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Platform set in utility tower, overlooking intercoastal waterway at
Hilton Head Island, is nesting home to migrating Ospreys each year. |
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