PORTLAND — Municipal workers removed a nest today that two ospreys were building at the end of the city’s new megaberth for cruise ships.
City officials took action after a biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said the nest could be removed if it contained no eggs, according to Nicole Clegg, city spokeswoman.
Additional Photos
The feathered pair was building the nest at the end of 1,000-foot-long Ocean Gateway Pier II, atop an electronic capstan that dock workers use to wind a ship’s mooring lines to a nearby bollard.
The municipal employees dismantled the yard-wide nest around noon and threw more than a dozen bundles of branches and sticks into Portland Harbor.
“We have been instructed by MDIFW that if there are no eggs to remove the nest as soon as possible,” Clegg said in an email to the Portland Press Herald.
Clegg said city workers will place something on the surface of the capstan, “either a pitched cover or spires, to deter the birds from using that location for nesting in the future.”
Completed last September, the megaberth is scheduled to serve its first cruise ship in September.
Scott Lindsay, a state wildlife biologist, said the ospreys will have plenty of time to build a nest elsewhere.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.