BIGHORN – The idea was hatched in a coffee shop.
MD of Bighorn Reeve Dene Cooper said it was during a meeting at one of the Dead Man’s Flats gas stations about a decade ago when he and a couple of others, including a longtime worker from Fortis Alberta, made the decision to livestream a local osprey pair.
“The ink was laid and the idea was hatched,” Cooper said with a laugh Tuesday (April 28).
As part of Fortis Alberta’s Avian Protection Plan, the livestream was combined with nesting platforms along power lines introduced by the company as a way to reduce impacts to raptors and migratory birds, while also minimizing operational risk and ensuring compliance with environmental legislation.
The Exshaw camera began officially streaming live video of a pair of ospreys on an artificial nesting platform in March 2013.
It is a great opportunity for birders, Cooper said.
“Everyone that travels Highway 1A looks for the return of the birds … when the birds return, there is satisfaction that the world is well,” Cooper said.
While the Bow Valley is home to many nesting pairs, including in Seebee, Dead Man’s Flats, at the Engine Bridge as well as a couple other locations in Canmore, and one at the Graymont plant, the group decided to set up the camera near Exshaw.
“We have regular watchers who come back every year, and they share the information to others who stay throughout the mating season,” said Alana Antonelli, communications and marketing manager with Fortis Alberta, in an email.
While the platform has been home to nesting osprey since their re-location from a nearby power pole in 2006, the 2013 floods created the need for an upgrade.
“We had to replace the camera and platform after the 2013 floods from its original location a few hundred meters away,” Antonelli said.
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Now complete with a nesting platform and butchering pole, where hawk-like birds devour their catch of the day, this spring's livestream kicked off April 20 giving a bird's-eye view into the penthouse of the Exshaw pair. The set up is about 100 metres northwest of the previous location along Highway 1A at First Lake, also known as Exshaw Pond.
“We track them every year and record the number of eggs laid and successful young,” Cooper said.
He added that for parents currently looking for activities for their home-schooled pupils, it is also a great opportunity to learn about nature.
“While it isn’t Walt Disney – there are times when eggs are broken, are times when young birds die, and there are times when things happen to the adult birds too – it is a real story,” Cooper said.
The ospreys returned on April 21 and have been busy building their nest ever since. In the coming weeks, courtship will start then, if everything goes well, eggs will be laid.
“There is only one way to get interested in birds and that is learning about your first bird … and watching their behaviour is so much more interesting than looking at a textbook,” Cooper said.
The livestream can be viewed on the Fortis Alberta YouTube Channel at Fortis Alberta Osprey Camera - Exshaw.
