Rare Birds Thwart Antenna Installation

The Detroit Free Press has reported that a nesting pair of ospreys have thwarted attempts by SprintPCS to add an atenna array to one of their towers. The pair have nested near the top of a 180-foot-high tower owned by AT&T Wireless and Nextel. When SprintPCS engineers tried to install their antennas below the existing ones, the birds took fright and attacked the workers.

When the men kept on working Wednesday and Thursday, the birds flew away. That may not have been good for the three eggs the couple are tending.

"There is a chance those eggs may already have been lost," said Jim Kortge of Fenton, a member of Osprey Watch of Southeast Michigan, a volunteer group that monitors the fish-eating hawks told the newspaper.

However, work was stopped when a cameraman confirmed that there were eggs in the nest.

On Thursday, Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Lori Sargent warned Sprint by e-mail that "osprey are . . . protected by state law" and "harassment or disturbance of their nesting is considered a violation of state law."

Sprint spokeswoman Susan Kristof said company officials decided to "delay at least a few weeks" the antenna's installation.

There has been a program to reintroduce the osprey to southern Michigan, where they had recently become scarce. Three pairs of ospreys are nesting in southeastern Michigan this year, Kortge said."

Posted to the site on 11th May 2004