Moraine Preservation Fund welcomes ospreys back to park
Last month, a popular local cyber-tradition returned for another season as the Moraine Preservation Fund turned on its “osprey cam” — a streaming look at the spot on the park’s north shore where a male and female osprey set up their nest each year.
On Sunday, April 19, the organization welcomed a group of members and others to the park for a live look at the osprey nest, as well as a history lesson on how the species has survived and thrived in the state of Pennsylvania.
“We’re just getting people together to learn about osprey, about their nesting season and also about the reintroduction program that was done by Moraine Preservation Fund in the late ’90s,” said Michelle Huff, board member for the organization.
Huff lectured guests about the osprey’s mating, migration, dietary and various other habits; and she showed guests a miniature replica of the osprey cam. According to Huff, the camera is entirely powered by two solar panels.
During Sunday’s event, Cassandra Dixon, the organization’s vice president, said she hopes for the osprey cam to eventually be activated 12 months of the year. Currently, the osprey cam is shut off around the time the ospreys migrate south, which generally takes place in late August or early September.
By the 1970s, ospreys had almost entirely disappeared from Pennsylvania due to the expanding use of the chemical DDT in agriculture — which was eventually banned in 1972 — as well as the decline in the population of the fish that ospreys feed on.
Parkgoers at Moraine State Park — and Pennsylvanians as a whole — have Dr. Larry Rymon to thank for the continued existence of ospreys in the state. In 1980, Rymon, of East Strousburg University, created the first osprey reintroduction project in the world. Over the next six years, Rymon introduced a total of 110 ospreys into the state through a process called “bird hacking,” which involves a tower of enclosed artificial nests.
In 1993, Moraine State Park began its own osprey reintroduction project, bringing in six birds from the Chesapeake Bay area in its first year. The goal was to introduce a total of 100 birds to the park in its first five years. The park almost passed this goal with one year to spare, reaching 99 total osprey by the fourth year.
In both 2023 and 2024, “osprey cam” viewers saw surprise owl attacks unfold, which led to the loss of chicks.
In 2023, an owl attack led to the loss of all three chicks which had recently hatched.
The next year, another owl attack occurred, damaging two of the three eggs in the nest. Only one was able to hatch a chick. The chick only lived for three months before falling and succumbing to an unknown predator.
However, last year, the osprey season at Moraine State Park was trouble-free for the chicks.
“Last season was a perfect season,” Huff said. “We watched all three of them fly off.”
