‘OK, this is not your average bird’: Minnesota high school football team’s season delayed by nesting Osprey in floodlights

AP Photo/Mark VancleaveTurn off the lights

The Nesting Ospreys have defeated the Apple Valley Eagles in Minnesota high school football

They haven’t actually played each other, but the ospreys took charge when they built a huge nest to raise their chicks, high up on a light pole at the Apple Valley High School football field

Because of it, the migratory raptors that are tected under state and federal law forced the school, known as the Eagles, to rearrange their football and soccer schedules, switching to day games instead of night

Turning on the hot floodlights would have risked cooking the birds and starting a fire. “When you tell someone this story of ‘Wow, we have to reschedule because there’s an osprey nest in our stadium,’ they’re , ‘You can’t make this type of stuff up, right?’” said Cory Hanson, athletic director at the school in the Minneapolis suburbs

Working with the state Department of Natural Resources, the school has been sending up a drone twice a week to monitor the chicks so that once the young ospreys are old enough and fly off, crews can remove the nest and switch on the traditional Friday Night Lights. “Luckily for Apple Valley, they should be able to remove the nest within bably a week because the birds have already taken some of their first flights,” Heidi Cyr, the department’s nongame wildlife permit coordinator, said Friday

Hanson said he’s seen as many as four chicks in the drone photos

He said the school became aware of the nest around June. “When you see these large birds flying across your field with these humongous sticks, you start to ask questions , ‘What is going on here?’” he said. “And you take one look at that nest, right? And you’re , ‘OK, this is not your average bird.’” DNR officials confirmed it was an osprey nest, and told school officials that federal law made it that they could not disturb it for now

So, Hanson said, they had no choice but to revise their schedules

But he said other schools have been great finding alternate sites and times, despite their initial disbelief

According to the DNR, ospreys are one of the larger birds of prey that inhabit Minnesota, with wingspans of 4.5 to 6 feet (1.4 to 1.8 meters)

They’ll return to their nests every year and will build them up with new materials every season

Their nests can get as large as 10 feet deep (3 meters) and 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) in diameter

Their diet is almost exclusively fish

They’ll dive from high altitudes to grab fish with their sharp talons, plunging as deep as 3 feet (1 meter) underwater

Ospreys to build their nests in high places with views, including dead old trees and structures that resemble them, utility poles, channel markers and cellphone towers

That sometimes creates fire hazards

So the DNR issues a number of nest removal permits every year

But permission to remove nests that still hold young ospreys is normally denied unless there’s a major health and human safety concern

Stadium lighting doesn’t qualify, Cyr said

Efforts to restore their population, which have included building nest platforms, have been a success in Minnesota and elsewhere, Cyr noted

Depending on the time of year, they can now be found across most of North America

Once the chicks at Apple Valley fly off for good, Hanson said, school officials and the DNR will relocate the nest from the light tower to a new platform on school grounds in hopes that the parents will return next year

But just to be safe, they’ll also erect deterrents on the lights so the ospreys don’t try to nest there again. “So if anyone sees that happening, don’t worry,” Cyr said. “The birds are safe

They’ve successfully left the nest and they’re on their way to becoming adults themselves.” ___ Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski reported from Minneapolis

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