Your Annual Gift Supports Osprey Nation

Ospreys on their nest platform at Milford Point. Photo by Sherri Delaney.

Dear Friends,

I write you today on behalf of our state’s Osprey population.

Over the years, residents of Connecticut have been awestruck by the grace of these majestic raptors. The beautiful black and white Ospreys, which nest along our shorelines and catch fish in our waterways, are one of the state’s most iconic birds. This year, we partnered with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to launch Osprey Nation, a program that supports essential Osprey research and manages a newly formed citizen-science project to locate and monitor nests across the state.

In its inaugural year, Osprey Nation supported the radio-tracking of three Ospreys at the mouth of the Connecticut River; and brought 160 volunteers together to monitor more than 350 osprey nests across the state. Years ago, this picture would have been gravely different.

Widespread use of pesticides, particularly DDT which caused the thinning of egg shells and made incubation impossible, brought the population of Ospreys crashing down in the 1960s. By 1970 there were fewer than 10 nests in the state, and it wasn’t until a decade after the ban of DDT in 1972 that Ospreys began to make a comeback.

The Osprey population is now strong, but we need your help to ensure that it remains so. At Connecticut Audubon Society we are working diligently with our team of stewards to keep track of Osprey nests, for not only do we revere the beauty of these birds, but their health is a harbinger of ours. Through them we will be attuned to future environmental threats and human health hazards.

Osprey Nation is a critical project, and almost entirely donor and volunteer supported. Our goal for 2015 is to increase the number of nests we monitor to 450.

To ensure that we have the funds necessary for this project, please consider making a gift today. Every dollar donated stays in Connecticut, ensuring the ecological health of our state for future generations.

Together, we can continue to be stewards and advocates for these beautiful birds, and help ensure that the wild denizens of our state will have our support as their needs arise.

I hope we have your support – we cannot do this without your help. Please click here to make a donation.

Sincerely,

Alexander R. Brash
President