Administration with the Town of Osoyoos are thrilled with the response since the town, with assistance from FortisBC, installed a camera on top of a hydro pole near Osoyoos Elementary School last year to view the daily occurrences in an osprey nest. Since that time, the town’s website has had more than 100,000 “hits” from viewers checking out the daily lives of the mother osprey and her three babies. (Photo supplied)
Watching Mother Nature perform her magic has proven quite the success story.
Since the Town of Osoyoos installed cameras allowing members of the public to view an adult osprey nest built atop a hydro pole near Osoyoos Elementary School last year, the town’s website showing the daily lives of the mother bird and her offspring has attracted more than 100,000 hits.
“That’s just awesome and amazing … we never thought we would get that kind of response when we put this altogether,” said Gerald Davis, the town’s director of community development. “To reach 100,000 hits on the website in just a few months is just incredible.”
The town worked with FortisBC, which provided funding to purchase the high-tech camera and equipment needed to record the daily lives of the female osprey and her offspring.
To discover that many people were checking out the website several times a day just goes to show that many people are interested in everything Mother Nature has to showcase, said Davis.
The mother gave birth to three babies over the course of the past few months, said Davis.
“We thought this would be a nice little, eco-friendly community project that might garner a little interest, but the response was 10-fold to anything we ever thought might happen,” he said. “Not only have we received tremendous response on the website, but we’ve also received an incredible number of phone calls, emails and comments from the public stating just how much they have enjoyed everything to do with this project.
“It has been more than we ever expected and we’re actually quite overwhelmed with the response.”
Just as the town’s website recorded its 100,000th hit of views on the osprey nest, the town announced the website would be going off air until the spring.
“The mother and the babies travel south for the winter and are expected to return in late March or early April,” said Davis. “We will shut down the site for the winter and have it back up and running when they return in the spring.”
There were several glitches that took place over the past few months, but FortisBC stayed on board and continued to provide funding and eventually found a workable “nanobeam” to broadcast the daily activities of the osprey nest that can handle the hot temperatures and windy conditions, said Davis.
“We were down for extended periods two or three times because the equipment wasn’t working properly,” he said. “But we’re now using this special nanobeam that works really well and we haven’t had any problems for quite a while now.”
The town has had a great working relationship with FortisBC since this project came together and they deserve much of the credit for its success, said Davis.
“They’ve been a great partner to work with and have always been on board when we did have some technical difficulties with the camera and equipment,” he said.
“We’re already looking forward to the return of the birds next spring and more people viewing them on the website.”
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
