Spring is in the air, and birds are enjoying the mild weather and increased food sources that come with it. It's the best time of the year for most of our birds to settle down and make their nests.

Some of our most conspicuous birds return each year to the very same spot to build upon the nest they used last year. Ospreys, those large fish-eating birds-of-prey are a great example of this strategy. These birds often nest on man-made platforms, power poles and channel markers in and around the marsh and ocean environments they prefer. You can easily find an osprey nesting platform yourself if you drive north on 14th Street to the northern end of Amelia Island. At the bend in the road just after the Egans Creek bridge, look up to the right. You will see a tall power pole, where the ospreys have nested each spring for nearly a decade. This winter, when the old nesting platform finally decayed, the Florida Public Utilities Company installed a new pole and platform about twenty feet away, just for the osprey. More than likely the osprey will adapt well to this even higher nest platform, and once again raise a family for all of us to watch.

A power pole with a nesting platform on N.14th Street
plays yearly host to a pair of nesting osprey.
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When you walk along the trails in Fort Clinch State Park, Little Talbot Island State Park, the Egans Creek Greenway and other wooded natural areas take a close look at any dead trees snags that you find. When not provided with a manmade pole, most woodpeckers big and small make their nests in tree cavities that they hollow out and fill with nesting material. The best way to spot these nests is to listen for the territorial drumming sounds that woodpeckers make by hammering on hollow trees and try to find the birds. If you are lucky you just may spot your own woodpecker nest to follow through the weeks of spring.

Some cavity nesting birds take well to birdhouses in Amelia Island suburban yards. If you are lucky enough to have a backyard on Amelia Island the simple addition of a bird house or two might give you a chance to watch nature in progress right from your own windows. Attracting bluebirds to a backyard birdhouse is a goal of many birders, and bird houses designed with bluebirds in mind are available at local garden supply stores. Many more people have bluebird houses than nesting bluebirds, however. Bluebirds are among the pickiest birds when choosing their nest location. The bird house must not only be the right dimensions, but it should be facing an open meadow or wide expanse of lawn where bugs can be found close nearby and be far enough from places where predatory birds, rats and snakes might linger.

Many birders on Amelia Island share the same sorry tale year to year. They happily watch as a pair of bluebirds come by and inspect the bird house over a period of days. But, alas, no pair decides to settle and the curious bluebirds move on down the road never to be seen again. Luckily tufted titmice and Carolina chickadees are quick to spot a backyard birdhouse that the choosier bluebirds disdain. Any species of nesting bird provides the bird lover with hours of backyard entertainment.

Chickadees often nest in backyard birdhouses.
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Among the least choosy backyard nesting birds are Carolina wrens. These small birds have a cheerful voice and a "just do it" attitude about nesting. Many homeowners on Amelia Island are surprised each year to find wren nests in their potted plants, in clothes hanging on the line, in mailboxes and garages. If you find wrens building a nest in an inconvenient - for you - place, move it before the eggs are laid. The wrens will easily begin another nest in a better spot, and you will not have the guilt attached to closing your garage door and starving the birds trapped inside or out.

Many of Amelia Island’s natural bird nests are far from conspicuous but there if you know how to look for them Bird nests that are built in shrubs and tree branches are more difficult to spot, especially since the materials used to construct the nest are most often natural vegetation that blends with the scenery. In these cases, a close look at the behavior of backyard birds like cardinals and blue jays and sparrows and painted buntings might provide clues. When these seed-eating birds show up at your birdfeeders try to determine where they are coming from and going back to. You just might find the location of their nest hidden deep within a nearby tree or shrub. If and when the successful pairs fledge their young, you just might find the goofy, naïve offspring at your feeder being taught by the parents how to find food for themselves.

Bluebirds are very picky when they choose a bird house in which to settle.
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Among the least conspicuous bird nests are those that are found along our miles of beach. A number of shorebirds, if not disturbed, return to the same beach areas from year-to-year. Most beach-nesting birds largely forego any elaborate nest construction. Their nests are only small depressions that they scrape out in the sand, and their eggs are camouflaged to near-invisibility. When you walk our many beaches in the spring look for the bird-nesting signs posted around roped off areas. With the use of binoculars from a non-disturbing distance you can usually find the eggs and young of least terns, Wilson’s plovers and other shorebirds. Never let your dog run loose on the beach - it may disrupt an entire nesting bird colony and chase them away permanently.

With these tips, a bit of patience and some finely tuned observation skills, before long you should be able to find your own nesting birds to watch for a few minutes or for the season. In spring Amelia Island really is for the birds. Now get out there and find some and you’ll be justly rewarded.