Bird’s-Eye View
In late summer 2015, retired Grand Lake businessman Kent Roorda decided to build an osprey nest. He’d noticed that the U.S. Forest Service and the local electric company were discouraging mating pairs from nesting atop power poles by erecting tall platforms as alternative spots for the returning raptors to safely hatch and fledge their chicks. The talented craftsman snagged a set of nest-building plans from the Forest Service, thought he could do better, and got to work.
He cut a round, four-foot-wide plywood platform and coated it with tough epoxy to better endure Grand Lake’s punishing weather. He installed 20 short upright PVC posts around the perimeter of the platform, weaved willow branches through those posts to anchor the nest, and stitched the whole thing together with tough aluminum wire. He spent $500 to rent a lift so he could reach the top of a 60-foot lodgepole pine at the corner of his house and hauled the colossus into the sky to await the birds’ return from their winter home along the
