It’s high season for Osprey banding

It is currently the peak period for osprey banding. This raptor, which was threatened with extinction in the 1970s, returned to the forest of Orléans and Sologne almost 40 years ago. It remains a fragile and protected speciesit is estimated thata hundred pairs of ospreys currently live in France, mainly in Centre-Val de Loire. The birds are systematically ringed to be able to follow their evolution, but this can only be done over a very short periodroughly when they are about forty days old, neither more nor less.

We ring when the osprey is about 45 days old

This is a real race against the clocknoted Marie-des-Neiges of Bellefroidosprey specialist within the Loiret Nature environment association: “It is necessary that the young person is almost adult to support the ringing, so that there is no wound, and that the ring is not too large for a small chick. But if it is able to fly, we can no longer catch it: it is therefore necessary to band just before fledging, when it is about 45 days old. And since all ospreys return from migration and lay eggs around the same time, it’s been a very short time, between mid-June and mid-July, it’s very intense!“

But this ringing operation remains essential : “The osprey is currently slowly expanding, she specifies, this means that the species remains fragile, it would not take, for example, an episode of heavy pollution in the Loire which would cause a disaster on the fish, and therefore on the food resource of the osprey. The background makes it possible to control the dynamics of the population and to better understand the behavior of this bird.“

More and more osprey nests on top of RTE pylons

Banding requires first climbing to osprey nests. And more and more often, these nests are installed on top of electricity pylons at very high voltage (225,000 volts)! “In its natural habitat, the osprey builds its nest at the top of pine trees, but this kind of electricity pylon has great advantages for it.Explain Peter Rogerornithologist at the League for the Protection of Birds in Loiret. This allows him to have an unobstructed view, almost 360 degrees, it is a quiet and secure place for him. We spotted for the first time an osprey nest on a pylon in 2006, there are currently about twenty, just in the Center-Val de Loire.“

So much so that the associations have signed an agreement with RTE, the operator of the electricity transmission network. First, so that these nests do not cause a power outage: “A branch that falls under a nest can short-circuit the insulator chain, but our concern is first to ensure continuity of serviceinsists Xavier Waymeldirector of the RTE maintenance center in Sologne. This is why we install on these pylons species of baskets to receive the nests in complete safety.“

Another aspect of this agreement, RTE provides time and people to participate in ringing operations. It is thus the RTE teams who climb up to the nest, and come back down with the young ospreys which are ringed on the ground by the scientists before being placed back in their nest, 30 meters above sea level. “The partnership was started a decade ago, and it continues to grow, as osprey populations develop“, concludes Xavier Waymel.