Seaside Park to Add Second Osprey Nest, Officials Hopeful Birds Will Return to Marina

Ospreys returning to Ocean County. (Photo: Ocean County Department of Parks and Recreation)

Seaside Park is planning to have the borough’s second man-made osprey nest ready to be occupied by next season, officials said, with the borough trying out a new location after having failed to attract a nesting pair this year.

“The platform is ready,” said Councilman Marty Wilk. “It’s completely built and ready to be installed.”

Seaside Park already has one osprey nest surrounded by shrubs and dune grass near the southeast corner of the municipal marina, on Barnegat Bay. But this year the nest did not attract any nesting pairs, as it had in the past. There is no definitive reason why, but some have suspected the constant presence of other birds – especially crows and blackbirds – nearby to have dissuaded them. That platform will remain, but a new one will be placed in a different location.

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Borough officials first considered placing the new platform at the northwest end of the marina, but were concerned that debris from the platform produced when ospreys make their sizable nests could come too close to human activity on the ground, Borough Administrator Karen Kroon said. The next location brought them to Lake Avenue, where an open, grassy area exists north of the playground with a full-on view of Barnegat Bay. It would be roughly located between Decatur and Stockton avenues.

The prospective location for a new osprey nest in Seaside Park, NJ. (Credit: Google Maps)

An osprey looks out over the nest at the Seaside Park Marina, May 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

“It would be down by the water where the shrubbery is,” said Wilk. “We felt it would be a natural location, there’s nothing there to disturb the birds, either – not that they usually mind too many things.”

Also, Wilk said, a neighbor who is active in wildlife and environmental concerns has volunteered to keep watch over the platform. With a location having been agreed-upon, borough staff have several months to carve out some time to place the nest in the ground before spring.

“Between now and then we’ll get it installed,” said Kroon. “The existing one will remain. We’re going to leave it there and maybe we’ll get lucky.”