Redmond Ospreys And Their Nests

Marymoor Park juvenile osprey / credit Reinke

According to the Marymoor Park website, this tall osprey nest platform located near Parking Lot B was constructed in 2008, to replace a decommissioned cell tower. The new platform has been used by ospreys ever since.  

A juvenile osprey is currently occupying the nest.  (A juvenile can be identified by the white fringe around all of its brown wing feathers, which adults do not have.) 

I discovered that there are two empty osprey nests only a half mile away and still inside the park.  One nest structure is located in a tall lighting tower on the perimeter of baseball field #6 and the other is similarly located on the perimeter of baseball field #8. .

Empty osprey nests on Marymoor lighting tower

During all of my visits to the platform, only the juvenile has been present and I have never seen it flying around or accompanied by adult ospreys.  However, my visits have all been of fairly short duration, so I presume that the adults are still attending to the juvenile.  Nonetheless, the fall migration season has already begun, so presumably the juvenile and its parents may have already departed.  

-- John Reinke 

    Redmond, photojournalist 

   10/8/2023