Center for GIS
CGIS staff members donate a day to help band ospreys
in Patuxent River Park
 When Patuxent River Park naturalist Greg Kearns invited CGIS to participate in one of his annual outings in the Jug Bay area to band osprey chicks, eight intrepid CGIS staff members jumped at the chance to spend a day on the water and learn first-hand what osprey banding is all about. On Thursday, July 2, the weather couldn’t have been better as the group embarked on a pontoon boat and headed into the upper Patuxent River.
CGIS had connected with Kearns during the winter of 2008-2009, when CGIS worked on a wild rice mapping project with him and Patty Delgado, research coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). CGIS’s role in the project was to map stands of wild rice along a seven-mile stretch of the upper Patuxent between Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties for four different growing seasons. The resulting map depicts the decline and subsequent resurgence over a twenty-year period of this important native marsh grass species and is based on orthophotography selected from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s aerial survey imagery archive. Kearns was largely responsible for implementing a variety of measures that enabled the wild rice recovery, which has restored about 80 percent of marsh that had been lost primarily due to goose overgrazing.
For many years Kearns has also been building, maintaining, and monitoring osprey nesting platforms in Jug Bay that are accessible to humans only during high tide . Osprey chicks begin hatching in June and reach adult size in about 7-8 weeks. The osprey is a diurnal (active in the daytime), fish-eating bird of prey, or raptor, that is sometimes called fish hawk or sea eagle. Although the osprey is a single species, the raptor occurs nearly worldwide. Ospreys are known to take long migratory flights, and almost all east coast ospreys travel through Florida to Cuba to Hispaniola and on to South America. Paired ospreys mate for life, take separate vacations hundreds of miles apart, and usually return to the same nesting platform within a day of each other. Ospreys do not hide or camouflage their lofty nests.
During the banding excursion with CGIS, Kearns first guided a tour of areas of wild rice restoration, pointing out locations where he has particularly focused his efforts. He then described the osprey’s migratory and nesting habits, and demonstrated safe methods for removing chicks from their nests and holding them. While his helpers held the birds, Kearns attached a metal numbered band to each chick’s leg then recorded the chicks’ weight and gender (females weigh more than males and wear a necklace of brown feathers), and date and location of banding.
Kearns was the consummate tour guide, sharing not only his knowledge of the marsh flora and fauna, but also stories about the historic homes along the river. Matt Michels, Web Administrator for CGIS, summed up the experience best when he said simply, “Beautiful day.”
Division of Economic and Community Outreach
Center for GIS
Office Location: 7801 York Road, Suite 260, Towson, MD 21204
Phone: 410-704-3887
Fax: 410-704-3888
E-mail: cgis@towson.edu
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