This is a a guest post from one of our readers, who cared enough about the Ospreys to contact Enmax about the nest removal. Thank you for your email Susan.

Hi there. I know a lot of people were concerned about the Osprey nest that was removed from the top of an Enmax pole on MacLeod trail just south of Canyon Meadows Drive.  Thought I’d send this your way for your information.

I just got off the phone with Doris Koffman at Enmax, she is in the Environmental department, and is very well informed about the Osprey, not only on MacLeod trail but in other areas of the city. I felt very confident with the conversation I had with her in that I felt she answered the questions we had about the removal of the Osprey nest on MacLeod Trail.

I asked her why Enmax had removed the nest, and if there were eggs or fledglings in the nest.  Doris told me that there were no eggs nor fledglings in the nest at all. You probably are aware when Enmax “cleaned” up the nest 10 days to 2 weeks ago. It was posing a significant fire/electrical hazard, not only to the public but also to the osprey themselves as they have a very large wing span that could very easily come in contact with 2 wires at the same time, which, if this happened, the bird would not have survived.  Just recently, somewhere else in Calgary an osprey nest had become fully engulfed in flames when it came into contact with the power lines. I asked her again if there were any babies or eggs in our MacLeod Trail nest and she assured me that there weren’t and that this pair of osprey were likely infertile.

She mentioned that Enmax puts up alternative electric-less poles for the sole purpose of relocating birds of all types and that directly across MacLeod Trail into Fish Creek park there is a potential site for one of these poles for the Ospreys.

She seemed as genuinely concerned about the Osprey as we have been so I guess it was all in the name of safety, thankfully we can still see these beautiful birds flying around that area and they are still around to fly another day.

Thought I’d pass this on to you, not sure how or where else we could put this message for all the other concerned Osprey fans.

Regards, Susan LeBlanc