Manitoba Hydro aims to save osprey, prevent outages by using dummy posts to lure hawks from electrified poles

Imagine you're a bighawk, soaring over the trees with a fresh fish still wet and wriggling between your talons as you land atop an electrified hydro poleto begin picking apart your scaly dinner.

It's such a comfy spotyou think, 'Nice view, what better place to build a nest and raise a family than right here?"

It's a scene that's become more common in communities along the south basin of Lake Winnipeg in recent yearsone that Victoria Beach cottager Kerry Williams has documented with his cameraas Manitoba Hydro crews try to coax osprey away from nesting on transmission postsand starting pole fires.

"In many ways they're shy, and yet they build their nests almost exclusively in the area around Victoria Beach [around] the power lines [near] highways," said Williams.

With awingspanof about 1-metres (nearly five feet), ospreys, also known as fish hawks, are a protected hawk speciesmeaning their nests are also protected and theyare hard to miss when they're flying low.

Theymate for life, and the impressive tangled thickets of twigs they tie intonests on hydro lines and live wires in places like Gimli, Albert Beach,Victoria Beachand Winnipeg Beachstand out and create problems.

The nests are a hazard that can lead to electrical shorts and power outages, which is why Manitoba Hydro has installed dozens of tall nesting platforms adjacent to hydro poles where osprey have been nesting in recent years.

"One [nest] is 18 inches tallImean, you can't miss it. It sticks out like a sore thumb," said Williams.

The platforms are designed to encourage the ospreys to nest on them and not on the dangerous hydro pole next door.

Human encroachment has led to a loss of suitable habitats (high trees) for the birds and hurt the species' ability to rear young.

"Ospreys generally locate their stick nests at the most highest point in an open area. In many areas of the province, particularly around the south basin of Lake Winnipeg, those points are now energized distribution poles or on top of equipment at a substation," Hydro spokesperson Bruce Owen said in an email.

"If the nests are left on an energized equipment or pole, the risks can be severe. First, the birds are most often killed if they make contact with live equipment. Second, their nests and guano (acting as a conductor) can cause an equipment failure, such as a pole fire, leading to a prolonged outage."

During the breeding season, between mid-April and late-August, nests aren't to be disturbed or moved from hydro poles. Outside of season, hydro crews will relocate a nest from a hydro pole and place it on the dummy pole in hopes that the birds will prefer the platform.

Ospreys primarily eat fish, so it makes sense that they would find the southern basin of Lake Winnipeg an ideal place to mate and spend the summer. Anglers dangling rodsover the pier along Gimli's shores often attract hungry ospreys that circle high overhead, waiting to dive down and scoop up stunned fish set free from a fisher's hook.

But Williams has been going to the family cottage in Victoria Beach since he was just a boy in the early 1960s, and he says it's only over the past decade or so that he's noticed the birds in the area.

He's counted four or five ospreynests near his family cabin in Victoria Beach this spring.

He says it takes a lot of time, resources and planning to install the posts, and he's thankful Hydro goes to such great lengths to create habitat for the bird of prey.

"It's just nice to see large raptors like that into an area where, like I said, growing up they weren't," said Williams.

"I hadn't really seen an osprey up close until that nest box went up, so I think Hydro's got a great idea there. The thought that a beautiful bird can meet a pretty nasty end, a jolt from hydro, and to see them being proactive ... I think it's a great initiative."