[Photos by STEPHEN J. CODDINGTON | Times]
This crane at the Port of Tampa has been idle since a
pair of ospreys built a nest in it and had two chicks.
The work stoppage is costing $20,000 per week,
the crane’s owner says.
Posted on 04/11/2011 7:38:49 PM PDT by driftdiver
TAMPA — Setting out to do a job expected to take only a few days, a salvage crew spotted trouble last week when a bird swirled menacingly around its gear.
Atop the crew's crane, ospreys had built a nest and had chicks.
Marine contractor and crane owner Jani Salonen wanted to do the right thing. But in trying, he's had to continue paying his idled crew and renting a barge that can't move, while exposing a bureaucratic conundrum and involving Congress.
On Monday, he estimated the week's delay had cost him $20,000. And the ospreys were still nesting on his crane.
"Everybody is trying to do the best they can by the birds," Salonen said.
Under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, it is illegal to transport protected birds or their nests without permission. Osprey are among the more than 1,000 species that receive such federal protection.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
Remedy - Shotgun blast in the middle of the night.
Poor Finnish crane owner. The Ospreys are incredible birds. I was playing golf once and one took off from a tree above my head. I did not know it was there. They are huge. The wingspan is crazy big.
Amazing bird - poor fish.
Amazing. All I can say. He should not have left the Crane up in the air. 20k a day?? He should just roll the Crane off and get the Greenies to rent it till the chicks fly. They would probably pay 30k a day.
There are 1000s of them here. I’d think the contractor could cut a deal to constuct a few nesting platforms in exchange for removing this one.... but the enviros probably wouldnt go for it.
and if the Feds didnt have their rabid talons in it (seemed an appropriate metaphor) then some students from USF or UT would have relocated the bird and everyone would get on with his business.
This is the sort of stuff, I'm given to muse, that takes down once great nations.
Knock the nest down. They Ospreys will have a new nest in a new spot by the next dusk. It’s how God made them.
you mean like those pathetic towers on I75?
“Remedy - Shotgun blast in the middle of the night.”
Exactly!Also leave a Prayer rug on the barge,since these people are above the law!
I did some work at a Federal facility and every morning with the barn swallows flying around a guy with a broom would knock their work from the eaves. “Once they have a usuable nest we can’t touch them - so every morning we have to knock down what they managed to build over night”.
Yep. It always works out. And everyone is happy and healthy. Some mutual respect is built, as well.
I don't know about that! Those bird's sure didn't seem to get the message. And while their perseverance is admirable, I seem to recall the guy knocking down the nests muttering under his breath the entire time!
Poor Finnish crane owner. The Ospreys are incredible birds. I was playing golf once and one took off from a tree above my head. I did not know it was there. They are huge. The wingspan is crazy big.
Amazing bird - poor fish.
Twenty years ago they made a comeback in Ill. I live just a
few miles from the Mississippi and have my own lake. One
year I had two couples nesting there. They are one of the
most beautiful birds in the world. The shape of the wing is
very distinctive with a pronounced “shoulder”. Then we
started getting bald eagles and they ran the osprey off. Now
that is a big bird! Nobody looks twice at an eagle here any
more they are so common, I have seen almost a hundred at one
time at the river. Haven’t seen an osprey for years.
Shoot, Shovel, Shut-up
[Photos by STEPHEN J. CODDINGTON | Times]
This crane at the Port of Tampa has been idle since a
pair of ospreys built a nest in it and had two chicks.
The work stoppage is costing $20,000 per week,
the crane’s owner says.
Sounds like a taking without compensation to me.
Two things are obvious. The crane sat idle long enough for the birds to build the nest, lay the eggs and hatch them...
Nesting:
2-4 white, pink, or buff eggs with brown blotches and a 32-43 day incubation period. Fledging occurs 48-59 days after hatching. The nest is a bulky mass of sticks placed in a tree, on a telephone pole, or on the ground.
Looks like ignorance and negligence to me. How was the $20k a week covered while the birds built the nest, laid and hatched the eggs? That had to have been at least six weeks, assuming some truly fast nest builders.
There also could have been a means of building a temporary barrier on top of that crane to prevent the nesting.
Competence seems to be a missing ingredient here. The Contractor is trying to pull a fast one and get some "free" extra charges.
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