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Excerpt:

Location, location, location! But for a fenced-off dilapidated navigation light stand on a jetty at the Seaplane Lagoon, ospreys would not have had a successful nesting season this year.

In late August two adult ospreys took flight from their Seaplane Lagoon perch for parts unknown with two healthy offspring. It was a welcome sight because for the past three years a series of frustrating avian soap operas featuring other ospreys and unwanted nesting attempts aboard the maritime ship Admiral Callaghan were marked with failure. Previously in 2012 they had raised one chick, the only other recorded case of osprey reproduction at Alameda Point.

The ospreys briefly attempted to nest this year on a parking lot light pole on the wharf near the USS Hornet. But a pair of ravens repeatedly harassed the ospreys, even stealing nesting material and tossing some of it on the ground. The ospreys finally found peace back on their original nest from years ago that still straddles the top of the light stand at the entrance to the Seaplane Lagoon. The navigation light stand, erected in 1940, is at the tip of the rock wall jetty on the west side of the lagoon.

This year’s nesting effort was aided by the installation of a fence across the foot of the jetty where the nest sits to keep curious individuals from wandering out near the nest and causing the birds to leave the nest. The fence was erected by the city at the urging of local osprey watchers.