Osprey chicks hatch in Newport

A pair of ospreys has hatched chicks on Shellmaker Island for the second consecutive year, but this year raising the family will be much less expensive.

The birds are nesting on a platform atop a pole on the island, which is also the site of the Back Bay Science Center, now under construction.

For about five or six weeks, the pair of ospreys acted as if they were incubating eggs, so wildlife workers have been keeping an eye on them, said Jeff Stoddard, a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game.

“We’ve been looking for about the last week and a half to see if they’ve hatched anything,” he said. “This week we’ve seen a couple of heads pop up.”

Ospreys are federally protected birds, and none were known to have nested in the area in many years — until 2006. The problem with last year’s chicks was that the nesting platform was too close to the science center construction site.

Construction was halted for nearly four months to avoid disturbing the birds, a delay that cost almost $200,000.

That won’t happen again. In February, a Southern California Edison crew helped Fish and Game workers move the nesting pole about 400 yards farther from the new building to give the ospreys more privacy.

“It is definitely a good thing that we moved the pole,” Stoddard said, because pavement is now being put in right next to the old pole site. “Since everything else is dependent on that, everything else would have had to stop.”

Biologists are fairly certain that the pair nesting this year is the same one form last year, but there’s no proof because the birds aren’t banded for identification, he said. They’re considering banding this year’s chicks to help collect data on the birds.

Stoddard said the chicks will likely start practicing flying in June, and they could be fledged by July.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Viewing of recently hatched osprey chicks

WHEN: 9 a.m., April 28

WHERE: Back Bay Science Center, 600 Shellmaker Road, Newport Beach

INFO: Call Robin Madrid, (949) 640-9956