Wrapping up the season
By Tom Ludlam - for the Dennis Puleston Osprey Fund

This final commentary is being written as the vanguard of hurricane Isabel whips across our empty nest. I must say, it is impressive that the camera we so arduously mounted above frozen ground many months ago is still faithfully broadcasting, rock-steady in a 30 knot blow. The birds, of course, are elsewhere now. We are left to recall an amazing season of events in which we were afforded unprecedented views of courtship and birth, violent death, a constant struggle for survival, and the final affirmation - as the two chicks departed fully-fledged - that this is part of an annual cycle nature has sustained for millennia. A cycle that we know is nonetheless a fragile thing in the face of present-day human activity.

Our record of this season now consists of several thousand hours of recorded video (more on that below), the archival comments posted on the database by dozens of dedicated observers, and the commentaries from our resident experts that have helped to put the unfolding events into a broader context of the osprey life cycle, the Long Island habitat, and Dennis Puleston's role in bringing about a global response to the human activities that have threatened these birds and other wildlife species.
For those of us who have organized the DPOF, this inaugural year has been a great success primarily because of the many hundreds of viewers who have gotten the opportunity to watch the daily activities of an osprey nest. From April through July, the osprey cam site recorded an average of about 2000 "hits" per day. Individuals or classroom participants found the osprey cam either through the Post Morrow Foundation website, Newsday's "Our Natural World", or Cablevision's "Power to Learn" sites.

A technical note
We have received many comments to the effect that "This is the best nest cam I have ever seen." Indeed, our osprey cam is among the first, if not THE first, to provide live, high-resolution wildlife video to everyone with access to the Internet. This is largely a matter of timing. The capacity of low-cost computers and software, and the capability of the Internet to handle large amounts of data cheaply have been improving exponentially over the years. The system we designed and put together, for a budget of about $10,000, would not have been feasible a year earlier, and would not have been technically possible two years ago. That we were able to take full advantage of the latest developments in the computing industry is due to the fact that two of our members, Tom Shea and Tom Throwe, researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory, are among the world's leaders in the design of data processing systems for large scientific experiments.

Who are we?
A number of viewers have asked to know more about the DPOF. At the time of Dennis Puleston's death in 2001, a group of his friends established the Osprey Fund, in his memory, with the following mission statement: "The purpose of the fund will be to encourage research about ospreys on Long Island, to improve the nesting opportunities and to educate the public about these magnificent birds." The osprey cam was implemented through contributions to this fund, which is administered by the Post Morrow Foundation.
The DPOF Committee that developed and maintains the osprey cam is a diverse group of about 25 people, with various professional backgrounds, some of whom are expert naturalists. All have an abiding enthusiasm for the natural world that in some way draws from the wisdom and inspiration of Dennis. All of the work of the group is done on a strictly volunteer basis - there are no employees.
You can find a discussion of how the project evolved, and see some of the people involved, in the Spring 2003 Newsletter of the Post Morrow Foundation. This can be downloaded from www.postmorrow.org.
The nest that we have equipped is in the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge, on the Carmans River in Brookhaven Hamlet, near the Great South Bay. The nest is not accessible to the public, but can be seen from the Carmans River.

Plans for the future
We will leave the camera operational through October, and then take it down for the winter. We will try re-orienting the camera, to view the general scene near the nest, providing a "leaf cam" as the fall colors come on. (We're not sure how satisfactory this will be, however.)
We plan to continue the osprey cam next year. Clearly, we've learned a lot in this first year, and will try to take advantage of these lessons next year. Of course, we need the cooperation of the ospreys. They certainly did their part this year! The birds are expected to appear again on Long Island around mid-March.
During the off-season, we are looking into the possibility of making all of our video archives from the past season available on our server computer, so that anyone who wants to can bring up the video from a specified day (following on-screen instructions). This should be a real boon to osprey enthusiasts and researchers. Watch the web site.

How you can help
Our effort is financed by contributions, and we will need some additional support to continue next year. Although the major investments in equipment are behind us, continued operation will require continued financial support: we will need money for Internet fees, software maintenance fees, disks for archiving video, repairs, etc. If you can make a (tax-free) contribution, we'd appreciate it. See "make a donation" on the web site.
If you have suggestions or comments for improving the site next year, please let us know, via the message board. If you live in the vicinity of Eastern Long Island, and would like to become an active participant on the DPOF Committee, please let us know.

Thanks to all
In closing out the year, we would like to give special thanks to those dedicated observers who have kept us all informed through regular postings on the database. This has been a big help.
We are grateful for the support of Betty Puleston and her family, the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge, Newsday, Cablevision, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and to all of the contributors to the Dennis Puleston Osprey Fund.