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Stubborn ospreys keep rebuilding nest in front of traffic camera

Posted at 4:14 PM, Apr 25, 2014
and last updated 2014-04-25 16:18:46-04

A pair of feathery friends quickly turned into pests when they picked the spot for their home – right in front of a traffic camera!

And they had no intentions of moving either.

Meet the ospreys, ready for their close-up on a traffic camera pointed at an approach to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland.

Can’t see? Too bad. They’re building a nest. As biologist Jonathan McKnight explains:

“This time of the year ospreys fairly regularly chose wacky places to build nests.”

First they built a nest.

Then Maryland Transportation Authority workers tore it down.

The ospreys built another one, same place.

The workers tore it down.

The birds rebuilt.

The workers removed it – with the approval of fish and wildlife since no eggs had yet been laid.

One Washington DC TV station followed the flap live.

The transportation authority even gave them names: Ozzie and Harriet.

After all, ospreys tend to mate for life. Three times, Ozzie and Harriet built nests only to have them destroyed.

And then came the last straw – make that the last stick, a big stick.

Ozzie and Harriet were going for four. What did the spokesman for the transportation authority do?

But like the old sitcom, this story has a happy ending.

The transportation authority built Ozzie and Harriet a new home. The platform was placed about 10 feet away from the latest camera they were blocking. Workers put some of their old nest material in the platform and voila – the ospreys came, adding more twigs.