Osprey Nest on Orient Causeway Catches Fire: Police

ORIENT, NY - Tragedy struck in East Marion Wednesday as a beloved osprey nest, a harbinger of springtime and new life for years, caught fire.

Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley confirmed that the nest, which sat atop a PSEG electrical pole, did ignite.

"We did respond to the causeway to a report of an osprey nest burning atop of a electrical pole with wires smoking," police said.

It was not immediately clear if there were osprey inside the nest at the time of the fire, but unconfirmed reports say one may have been killed in the fire.

Flatley said the report does not mention any osprey that may have lost their lives.

The call came in at 6:30 a.m. and the officer was able to extinguish the ground fire after it fell, Flatley said. PSEG was then contacted to respond and inspect the pole, he said.

According to PSEG media representative Elizabeth Flagler the next fell to the ground after it went up in flames. The osprey, she said, built the next on the double cross arms of the pole, right where the electric goes into the insulator.

"The birds like to build their nests there," Flagler said. Back in May, she said, PSEG was working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to build a pole right next to the one where the fire broke out, hoping to have them move, before there were eggs in the nest, when nothing can be done.

"The guys have been trying for quite a while" to resolve the problems and move the nest to the new pole, she said. "But unfortunately this happened before anything could be done .The birds were just one step ahead of us."

Patch photo courtesy of Joyce Grigonis.