New England’s ospreys left the region weeks ago for warmer temperatures in the south. That doesn’t mean, however, that they are forgotten.

The return of the osprey from dangerously low numbers is another hugely successful conservation story. Last week, in honor of Thanksgiving, I talked about the turkey reintroduction and how wild turkey numbers went from zero to goodness knows how many in New Hampshire over just the last 50 years or so. Ospreys have a similar successful conservation story.

Ospreys were at critically low numbers in the 70s and slowly started making a comeback due to conservation efforts on many fronts. The osprey population is now to the point where it is safe to say it is wildly successful.

I recall working for a newspaper in southern Connecticut in the early 2000s, and a pair of ospreys building a nest on a light tower at a local beach was literally front-page news. Ospreys hadn’t nested in that city in several decades. Now that town, Norwalk, has several dozen osprey pairs nesting in it. A similar story can be told about osprey up and down the Connecticut coast along Long Island sound. Inland osprey numbers are thriving as well.

Osprey numbers, in fact, are on the rise in all New England states, including New Hampshire. According to an article by New Hampshire Public Radio, the Granite State now has 150 osprey pairs, in “every major watershed in the state.” That is up from about only 12 pairs four decades ago, the article states.

I remember talking to a biologist about that initial nesting pair in Connecticut many years ago. He mentioned that the thriving osprey population is indicative of a cleaner environment all the way around. Long Island Sound, once very polluted, is now clean enough to support hundreds of ospreys. That means the fish are healthier and more plentiful and whatever the fish eat is thriving and plentiful as well. Ospreys are at the top of the food chain so for them to thrive, everything below them must be thriving as well.

I bring up osprey now as we head into winter because the Connecticut Audubon Society just released its annual Osprey Nation results. Osprey Nation is a citizen science project whereby people monitor osprey nests throughout the summer and fall. This year, volunteers monitored 688 active osprey nests and recorded 881 fledged ospreys. Both are all-time highs for the project. Some of that is likely due to an increased number of volunteers looking for nests and monitoring them, but it is mostly attributable to the wonderful conservation efforts over the last decades to save the osprey.

Ospreys are doing well in all New England states. Along Long Island Sound, ospreys have become almost a dime a dozen. I don’t mean that in a negative way, of course, it just means that there are so many it is hard to visit a beach or anywhere along the Sound and not see an osprey or three. They are not quite as common inland, but they are thriving along landlocked lakes, ponds and rivers as well. New Hampshire’s thriving population is proof of that.

Ospreys are a fan favorite and it’s always a thrill to see one, no matter where you are and no matter how many you’ve seen before.