$6-million squatters

SHELLMAKER ISLAND ? Two squatters have taken up residence in one of Newport Beach’s least comfortable dwellings, but they’ve got a great view.

A pair of ospreys hatched three chicks earlier this month, possibly becoming the first of their species to breed successfully in Orange County. The news has environmentalists aflutter, and it’s stopped more than the presses ? it also brought construction of the new $6-million Back Bay Science Center to a halt.

The ospreys are nesting on platform at the top of a 30-foot pole that’s not far from where the new science center will be built. Volunteers put the pole there specifically for ospreys in 1993, said Brian Shelton, a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game.

Ospreys have been seen in the Back Bay before, but none is known to have nested anywhere in Orange County. The birds aren’t listed as endangered, but they are protected by federal law from human meddling, Shelton said.

The birds are raptors that mainly eat fish. Shelton said the species suffered in the late 1960s from DDT insecticide that poisoned the fish they ate. But the environment seems to be recovering.

“We think within the [Newport Bay] watershed the pollution’s starting to work its way out of the system,” Shelton said. “Something’s working right for them to want to be here.”

And the Newport pair of ospreys seem well adapted to their surroundings, which include planes flying to and from John Wayne Airport, kayakers paddling by on the Back Bay, and fish and game employees using a nearby boat dock. You could almost call them urbanized.

“They’re not shy,” Shelton said. “They’ll often go by and show us the fish they’ve caught. They’ll fly overhead and display it.”

But they’re protective of their chicks, and to avoid disturbing them workers paused construction of the 13,000-square-foot science center, which is a collaboration between the city of Newport Beach, UC Irvine, several county and state agencies, and local environmentalists.

Temporary trailers now house a water-quality testing lab and fish and game department offices. The new facility will replace the trailers and include a teaching lab for science classes.

The ospreys are just the latest hitch in what Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff called a star-crossed project. When the city first sought construction bids in 2004, no one responded. Then bids came in too high, and the cost has risen steadily ? along with construction costs ? from about $4 million to $6 million.

The bird-related delay will push costs up by at least $30,000 a month, Kiff said, but he hopes work can resume by mid to late June.

Shelton said it takes about five to seven weeks for osprey chicks to be ready to go out on their own. Once they go, the parents won’t have time to lament over being empty nesters.

“As soon as they’re ready, we’ll roll out the bulldozers,” Kiff said.

Even with the new science center going up, Shelton expects the ospreys to stick around the Back Bay. “Normally they come back to the same nest year after year if the conditions are right,” he said.dpt.18-osprey-1-kt-CPhotoInfo881R2CJQ20060518izfpo2ncNo Captiondpt.18-osprey-2-kt-CPhotoInfo881R2FDF20060518hrtdlukfKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT (LA)An osprey, the largest bird of prey found in the Back Bay, clasps a fish on a channel marker in 2004.