Sippican Lands Trust volunteers refurbish Osprey pole nesting platform

It was a raw, gray, rainy Saturday, as a group of volunteers hiked through the gloomy wooded wetlands to reach the shore area where an osprey pole sits in the Sippican marsh.

The Sippican Lands Trust held a work party on Saturday, Dec. 28 of about 20 volunteers who first lowered the 30-foot pole, repaired the nesting platform and then raised it back into place.

On a count of three, the volunteers slowly lowered the pole to the ground, cleaned the platform and repaired it using screening and other building materials conducive to nesting. 

Alan Harris, president of the Lands Trust, said repairing the nesting platform is critical in ensuring the osprey’s future in the Sippican Marsh.

“It’s important to do this so that the osprey build their nests on these poles instead of telephone poles,” Harris said.

It is more environmentally healthy for osprey to have their own nesting habitat to keep the birds viable in the marsh location, Harris explained. Osprey who nest on utility poles risk losing their young when those poles are replaced or broken as opposed to the dedicated poles constructed with the sole purpose of providing the birds with a home.

“The pole is hinged,” he said. “We just need to replace the top platform. It requires two short bursts of muscle.”

Mary Howland Smoyer, whose family donated the nearly 20-acre parcel of property to the Sippican Lands Trust in 2014, stood back and surveyed the progress with a proprietary eye.

“We wanted to preserve this body of water,” she said of herself and her family. 

Osprey Marsh, located about three miles south of the intersection of Route 6 (Wareham Road) and Point Road, is a protected parcel of upland woods, wetlands and marshland. The Osprey Marsh features two trails, including Tucker’s Trail, named in memory of Tucker Francis, a natural pathway that meanders through the uplands and marshes at Osprey Marsh connecting with the Osprey Marsh Accessible Boardwalk. 

The Osprey Marsh Accessible Boardwalk is an 800-foot accessible wooden boardwalk and stone dust pathway with a prominent viewing platform at the end of the trail.

In addition to the work of the Sippican Lands Trust, the Massachusetts Audubon Society also partners with organizations such as Allen’s Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in South Dartmouth to foster osprey health and encourage population growth, which benefits the habitat as a whole, Audubon officials said.