Group trying to relocate osprey nest

POULSBO — The lights at a Poulsbo park must have seemed like a good nesting spot for a pair of ospreys. The pond nearby is stocked with plenty of fish. But those lights could ignite their nest and kill the pair and their offspring.

The Kitsap Sun reports the Kitsap Audubon Society is hoping to relocate the birds. In 2011, an osprey nest in a Poulsbo cellphone tower caught fire, leaving one of the adults injured and the offspring dead.

Now the Audubon Society is in talks with the North Kitsap School District about building a platform near the lights as an alternative nesting site. A similar platform was built earlier this year when ospreys were spotted nesting in a cell tower near a Bainbridge Island school.

State Department Fish and Wildlife biologist Jeff Skriletz says osprey, also known as the sea hawk, mate for life and lay two to four eggs a year. They often return to the same location to nest, and getting them to move can be difficult.