“ OK, this is not your average bird ”: the season of the football team of the minnesota high school delayed by the fisherman in the shelter in the spotlights

They did not play, but the oscreys took care of when they built a huge nest to raise their chicks, above on a light post on the football field at Apple Valley high school. Because of this, the migratory raptors protected by state and federal law forced the school, known as Eagles, to reorganize their football and football hours, passing through day games instead of the night.

He would have risked cooking the birds and triggering a fire.

“When you tell someone this story of” wow, we have to reprogram because there is an oscrey nest in our stadium “, they like” you cannot invent this type of stuff, right? “” Said Cory Hanson, sports director at the school in the suburbs of Minneapolis.

By working with the State Department of Natural Resources, the school has sent a drone twice a week to monitor the chicks so that once the young Balbuzards are old enough and fly away, the crews can remove the nest and light the traditional lights on Friday evening.

“Fortunately, for Apple Valley, they should be able to withdraw the nest in probably a week because birds have already taken some of their first flights,” Heidi Cyr, the department’s fauna license coordinator, said on Friday.

Hanson said he had seen up to four chicks in the photos of the drone. He said that the school had read the nest around June.

“When you see these large birds flying through your field with these gigantic sticks, you start to ask questions like:” What’s going on here? “” He said. “And you take a look at this nest, right? And you say to yourself:” OK, it’s not your average bird. “”

MRN officials confirmed that it was an oscrey nest and told school officials that federal law has clearly indicated that they could not disturb it for the moment.

So, said Hanson, they had no choice but to revise their schedules. But he said that other schools have been great to find alternative sites and times, despite their initial disbelief.

According to the MRN, oscreys are one of the largest prey birds that live in Minnesota, with wingspans from 4.5 to 6 feet (1.4 to 1.8 meters).

They will return to their nests each year and build them with new materials each season. Their nests can reach 10 feet deep (3 meters) and 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) in diameter. Their diet is almost exclusively living fish. They will dive high altitudes to grab fish with their sharp greenhouses, plunging as deeply as 3 feet (1 meter) underwater.

Ospreys like to build their nests in high places with clear views, including old trees and dead structures that resemble them, such as utility posts, channel markers and mobile phone towers. This sometimes creates risk of fire. The MRN therefore issues a certain number of nest withdrawal permits each year. But the authorization to withdraw the nests which still hold young Balbuzards is normally refused unless there is a major health and security problem. The stadium lighting does not qualify, said Cyr.

The efforts to restore their population, which included the construction of nesting platforms, were a success in Minnesota and elsewhere, noted Cyr. They left the list of specific state concerns in 2015. Depending on the time of year, they can now be found in most of North America.

Once the chicks at Apple Valley fly for good, said Hanson, school officials and the MRN will move the nest of the light tower to a new platform on the school field in the hope that parents will return next year. But just to be safe, they will also erect deterrents on the lights so that the oscreys do not try to nest there.

“So if someone sees it happening, don’t worry,” said Cyr. “Birds are safe. They managed to leave the nest and they are on the way to become adults themselves. ”

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The writer Associated Press, Steve Karnowski, reported in Minneapolis.