The osprey nest is located at Spring Meadow Lake State Park in Helena. Last Chance Audubon supplied the equipment and the camera, which is known as the Bill Rainey Memorial Camera.
Ospreys are federally protected migratory birds that spend the fall and winter as far away as Central and South America. Many return to Montana to breed and raise young. Ospreys are a species that has done well living and raising their young around people, but they are still wild animals that need their space. Please don’t approach any nesting birds, including the birds using this nest platform.
This camera feed is live and unedited and is intended to provide a window into the lives of wild birds in their natural habitat. Wild animals face a challenging life, and this camera will capture these ospreys’ lives as they unfold. It will show an unfiltered view of nature that may be difficult for some to see. FWP will not intervene in natural processes, for example weather, predation, sibling competition, limited food resources, or other natural hardships the birds may encounter. FWP will evaluate intervening in the event of human-caused threats on a case-by-case basis under the direction of agency biologists and other experts.
The camera can zoom in and out, capture audio, and broadcast at night. It can pan far left and right and can also tilt down to the ground. The view may be different day to day.
For more information on osprey, visit the Montana Field Guide osprey page.
Visit Montana Wild to learn more about living with Montana’s wildlife or check out our education resources available online
Questions or concerns? Send an email to MontanaWild@mt.gov or visit the Last Chance Audubon community page on Facebook
Bailing twine is frequently found in osprey nests and is added to the nest by parents as they build and maintain the nest. This is a problem for osprey chicks as they can easily become tangled and trapped in the strong twine. The Montana Osprey Project, at the University of Montana, estimates that 10% of osprey chicks die in their nests after getting tangled up in baling twine.
People can help by picking up discarded bailing twine and disposing of it in the trash.
The birds in this nest are wild animals, and their life story can be both rewarding and tough to watch. We often feel the need to intervene whenever we see a wild animal struggle- wishing that we could do something is a normal feeling- but acting on those feelings is usually the wrong thing to do when it comes to wildlife. Intervening can be disruptive to a nest and may not change the outcome of a bad situation. Generally, we will not intervene in the lives of these birds unless it is a human-caused emergency and our biologists recomend risking intervention.
Montana has a lot of amazing animal species but not all are easy to find. Ospreys are not only easy to find, but frequently build nests on human made platforms and even near buildings. This makes it easy to set up power and networking to run a camera. Ospreys also provide great educational opportunities. Students can tune in and watch a young osprey hatch or be fed a fish. These birds can also remind us to be stewards of the shared resources both humans and osprey use.
The camera used here was donated to Montana FWP for this project by Last Chance Audubon Society in Helena. The camera is a Reolink Pan tilt zoom camera model number RLC-823S2.