Flocking to see ospreys

SHELLMAKER ISLAND ? Strategically placed telescopes provided the public with a peek into the nursery of the osprey family that has made its home in the Back Bay.

A pair of the birds settled on Shellmaker Island in May and hatched what may be the first osprey chicks born here in 100 years. Volunteers organized the osprey viewing, held Sunday and the previous two Saturdays, to give people a chance to see the birds before the babies leave the nest.

“I never thought they were that big,” said Damien Kam of Newport Beach. “It’s nice that you can see them so close.”

He was one of more than 80 people who came to see the osprey family Sunday. A tent was set up to shelter two telescopes trained on the mother and her two chicks, who were in the nest atop a 30-foot pole installed expressly for ospreys.

Dad was perched on another pole some distance away. Visitors could look at the birds, but a fence kept them from getting too close.

Members of the Newport Bay Naturalists and state Department of Fish and Game volunteers wanted people to see the ospreys without disturbing them, volunteer naturalist Marilyn Frenz said.

“We want them to come back. We’re hoping that we’re very good hosts for them and they return,” she said.

Being considerate hosts in this case meant stopping construction on the $6 million Back Bay Science Center, which will be built practically in the shadow of the osprey pole. Officials decided to wait until the chicks are able to fly on their own before resuming work on the facility.

The young ospreys ? now nearly as big as their mother ? should be ready to leave the nest within a week or two, said Paul Galvin, a biologist from Irvine who came to answer questions Sunday. Once they start hopping around the nest, it will be a matter of days until they fly.

“They haven’t done that yet,” Galvin said. “All they’re doing is flapping their wings.”

By the time the ospreys leave, several hundred people will have taken a look at them. Cyndie Kam, who rode her bike to the osprey viewing with Damien, said it’s heartening that people care so much about the birds. She works with birds at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center.

“They’re fantastic,” she said of the ospreys. “It’s just something you don’t normally get to see around here.”dpt.26-osprey-1-CPhotoInfoCP1SBDEN20060626j1fpdjncCHRISTOPHER WAGNER / DAILY PILOT(LA)Ibi and Stan Winterman, of Costa Mesa, look at the ospreys through telescopes at Shellmaker Island in Newport Beach Sunday.