Osprey fans across the globe have been delighted by the safe arrival of a rare baby eastern osprey at Tumby Island in South Australia, after a clever plan was hatched to help its parents outwit a hungry fox.

The endangered eastern osprey (Pandion haliaetus cristatus) chick hatched on a man-made platform, installed on Tumby Island two years ago.

Members of South Australia’s Friends of Osprey conservation group say it validates their species recovery program, which has installed 14 artificial nesting platforms around the state to help save the eastern osprey

It is estimated there are only 50 breeding pairs of the birds left in SA, found on isolated rural coastal fringes and islands. 

Cameras were installed at the Tumby Island platform, and vision of the new chick has been viewed on YouTube and Facebook by twitchers from across the globe, in Russia, the United States, Europe and beyond.

A legacy of osprey protection

It’s nine years since Port Lincoln tourism industry operators Ron and Janet Forster first set out to help save the species.

The couple noticed that ospreys had take up residence on a sinking barge across from their marina home in Proper Bay.

So the Forsters purchased another barge, moved the birds’ nest to it, set up cameras and began streaming the adventures of the birds that lived there — appropriately named Mum and Dad — on YouTube.

The trials and tribulations of the endangered birds as they raised their chicks each year attracted fans across the globe.

Their plight also captured the attention of SA’s then-state environment minister David Spiers, who helped develop the Osprey Recovery Plan and the artificial platform project.

When Mr Forster died in 2019, he left a legacy of community protectiveness towards Mum and Dad — and other eastern ospreys in the region — that was firmly established.

Caught on camera

In recent years, the nearby community of Tumby Bay was baffled as to why another local nest on Tumby Island had not produced any chicks.

Then one night, a fox was filmed stealing across at low tide to snaffle the birds’ precious eggs.

Friends of Osprey and National Parks and Wildlife Service SA staff responded by installing a high platform to put the nest out of harm’s way.

Two years on, in mid-October of this year, a chick hatched.

The new arrival — child of proud parents Marum and Partney — has been named Blythe.

Friends of Osprey secretary Fran Solly said the arrival of a Tumby Island chick was special.

“That one was really exciting because foxes took the eggs off the natural nest on Tumby Island and we realised that’s why we weren’t getting any young from there,” she said.

A community effort

With funding from a government grant, landscape boards and donations from philanthropists, Friends of Osprey has installed platforms around the state.

Ms Solly said the platforms on the Yorke Peninsula in particular had been “monumentally successful”.

“They were put in because … the birds were struggling to find a safe place to nest,” she said.

Ms Solly said the species in Queensland and Western Australia survived in greater numbers as there were tall trees for nesting, whereas South Australia’s osprey population traditionally nested on limestone stacks off the coast.

“What we have noticed is they are so desperate to nest, they do adapt really well, as we’ve seen at the barge at Port Lincoln.”

Ms Solly said oyster farmers at Black Springs told the conservation group they had seen eastern osprey “trying to nest on a channel marker”, but they hadn’t seen them successfully raise chicks.

“So we put a platform in at Black Springs and the birds have moved onto it,” she said.

“We think that they’re probably sitting on eggs, it’s a bit hard to see.”

Other pairs in the area were nesting on communications towers.

“At Coobowie, we put a platform there and the birds moved onto that platform within two hours of it going in,” Ms Solly said.

Friends of Osprey are now hoping a platform installed at Onkarparinga will help the lone bird that lives there attract a mate too.

Help from a helicopter

Installing the platforms is costly and some have had to be put in by helicopter.

“There’s just been no other way to do it,” Ms Solly said.

“At Arno Bay it was quite a wet area and we had trouble even getting people in there to dig the hole and certainly couldn’t get vehicles in there.

The platform at Coobowie was also installed by helicopter.

Ms Solly said even with the artificial platforms, the chicks still faced an uphill battle to survive.

“I’ve been involved for eight years and most years three eggs hatch but to get them through to fledge it’s often only one or two [that survive],” she said.