Osprey Nesting Poles

Saturday 11th July 2015

Osprey Nesting Poles

We are excited to let you know that the Osprey poles were put up on 9th July. Here's a short report from our chairman Peter Edwards who must be thanked for all his efforts to make this happen!
 
It was an early start for the 4 crew from BT Openreach to get to Haye Farm with all their equipment and the telegraph poles where Farmers Alix and Nigel were waiting to show them the positions of the artificial nest and perch poles.  The operation started by digging the holes with the machine auger whilst Ben from the SE Ranger team of the National Trust  fixed the nesting basket to one pole and the perching timbers to the another.  Then the BT team hoisted the poles into the holes with their lorry mounted crane and backfilled the hole.  On one pair of poles the digging was much more difficult as the main lorry wouldn’t work on the sloping ground, but BT had a smaller rough terrain machine that could, but the poles had to be man-handled into place.
 
A very hard working crew were then shown the cider making equipment that Haye Farm is famous for and of course were allowed a little sample of cider.
 
A huge thank you to the team at BT and Ben from NT for making a very difficult job go extremely smoothly and of course to Alix and Nigel for allowing it all to happen.
 
Next job is to get the nesting material into the baskets with the help of CWT and then we will have comfy nests to attract the Ospreys
 
We will be organising a guided visit in the near future so will keep you posted.
 
(Friends of Fowey Estuary)