Renovations are for the birds
Filed under: community, network construction, osprey, Western Australia, wildlife
There are so many home renovation TV shows on the box these days, but here is a renovation with a difference and with a very happy ending.
Earlier this year, Network Construction’s Network Design team were involved a mast replacement at a customer site known as Ningaloo Station located just south of Exmouth in WA (see Whereis® Map – left).
Our Land Access and Environment team were called in as soon as the team realised the job was going to need some extra consideration due to the fact that an Osprey pair had made a nest on one of the existing antennae.
Our Network Design team took up the task, drawing on their previous experience with nest relocations, and put together a site species management plan and a construction plan.
Because each wildlife encounter is different, species management plans are developed around specific situations.
In the case of our Ospreys the species management plan included the following advice:
- Ensure that there are no birds currently using or in the nest.
- Push the nest off into a clear area between the guy wires ensuring that the nest breaks up. Spread the material slightly outside the guy wire limit, but not too much as the birds need to be able to see the supply of nesting material.
- If possible, collect a few of the larger sticks and take them up to new nesting platform for the birds to nest.
- The works should be completed before June and must be completed before Sunday, 12 June 2011, which is the official start of the breeding season.
- The breeding season is from mid-June to mid-November with the young usually capable of flight by the end of October. Eggs are usually laid in early to mid-July. The breeding pair usually visits the nest to carry out repairs in mid to late June.
This advice, concerning the environmental part of the design, was incorporated into the overall design and build by our Western Region’s Network Construction project team.
As part of the construction plan a team member came up with the idea of using an old upturned 1.2m mini-grid antenna as the new nesting platform for the Ospreys. The nesting platform was lifted into position along with a collection of sticks from the previous nest and put into position at the top of the mast.
The outstanding result was that the breeding pair were on hand to inspect their new nest site only 20 minutes after the platform was installed on 16 May.
The following day the Ospreys were rebuilding the nest in preparation for their new arrivals.
I am extremely proud of how our team works with land owners and parks and wildlife services, to carefully manage access and environmental challenges which they come across regularly in regional, rural and remote areas.
I know there are many wildlife enthusiasts and animal lovers out there, if you are one, I would be interested to know thoughts on our approach and any ideas for improving our methods.
An important part of developing a species management plan includes holding discussions with those involved locally. This helps to get a better picture of what is involved and how to best manage the situation.
The team involved in the mast relocation spoke with the customers, a husband and wife who are very passionate about this breeding pair of Osprey, which they can see from their house. By consulting the locals, our team gained valuable insights about how much effort the Osprey pair put to in building their nest.
Apparently, before the new fit-out, the birds would bring up nesting material and place it on the yagi antenna (TV-style) and the sticks would fall through, they continued this process until some of the sticks would stay in place, then they quickly built and locked the nest onto the antenna. It was a precarious spot to build a nest and it turns out a cyclone came through the area in February and blew the nest off the structure.
Now, thanks to the installation of the old dish antenna as a new nesting platform, the birds have a much sturdier nesting platform to raise their chicks.
For more on this topic see ‘Home Tweet Home’ a presentation developed which tells the story of what can happen when wildlife makes a Telstra tower their home.
I believe the birds were being charged rent by Telstra.
However, they were constantly being billed the wrong amount; were kept waiting for hours on hold only to be told by different people (some at call centres in the Philipines or India) that they knew nothing about the problem; were told to visit a Telstra store some considerable flying distance from their nest site only to be instructed that theproblem couldn’t be fixed as they were just a franchisee; were promised a call back on a certain day that never came; and have since been sent a credit for 0.002 cents on their rent account for the past few months. I hear they are now switching providers due to the total lack of service at Telstra.
Oh yes, and they were also unable to get any reception on the handset that Telsrtra sold them despite living right on top of a tower. Telstra has emphatically denied any hardware or network problems putting all the bird’s woes down to a faulty sim card. I just hope Mr Osprey doesn’t have to make any emergency calls to the hospital if Mrs Osprey has complications when the eggs hatch!