When I was growing up here, if you saw an osprey that was a big deal.”

Andy Soutter

Andy Soutter has been helping osprey for more than 30 years.

The longtime Barrington resident has been periodically installing and repairing osprey nests for the better part of three decades, and his volunteer work continued this spring when he and others put up three osprey stands. One of the stands is located in Hundred Acre Cove, another was on Adams Point, and a third was on a small island in the Warren River.

Mr. Soutter said he truly enjoys the work.

“It’s just fabulous,” he said. 

The interest started more than 30 years ago. Mr. Soutter said it was a Saturday afternoon and he was having a bowl of soup for lunch, flipping through the television channels. He stumbled across a PBS program about a couple of people from Westport, Mass who put up man-made osprey nests in the Westport River. 

“The birds were just starting to rebound from all the DDT they used in the 70s,” Mr. Soutter said. “I took as many notes as I could watching them put them (the nests) up.”

Mr. Soutter turned his notes into designs and before long was busy placing osprey nests all across Barrington. The first one was in 1990 on Rumstick Point, he said. 

“That nest looked great but it took five years for the osprey to inhabit it,” he said. 

His second nest went up in Hundred Acre Cove. Two weeks after the post went into the ground, osprey had built a nest atop the perch. That nest, which has been replaced a few times over the years, has been extremely productive in helping the osprey population numbers rebound. 

Osprey are fishing birds and migrate between the north and south each year — in Barrington, the osprey build nests on the man-made perches, atop the light poles at Barrington High School’s Victory Field, and in some other spots. 

Mr. Soutter said that by building the nests on islands in Hundred Acre Cove or the Warren River, it increases the likelihood that the offspring will survive. He said minks and fisher cats are common predators for young osprey.

The volunteer effort by Mr. Soutter and others who help build the nests, coupled with tougher regulations surrounding the use of pesticides have helped osprey numbers rebound. 

“When I was growing up here, if you saw an osprey that was a big deal,” Mr. Soutter said. “They were very, very few and far between. Very scarce in the 70s and 80s. Now you’re almost using them as fish-finders. 

“The numbers have bounced back.”

Recently, Mr. Soutter worked with Hank DeWolk to put up an osprey nest on Adams Point. He joined a different group of volunteers to repair a nest on an island in Hundred Acre Cove. 

Barrington resident Christian Capizzo praised the effort in a letter to the editor: “I would like to thank the Rhode Island Audubon’s Osprey Monitors, Butch Lombardi, Andy Souter, Dave Piccerelli, Matt Piccerelli, Frank Santos and Victor Lerish (Barrington Land Conservation Trust) for their herculean efforts in locating and resetting the osprey platform and nest on Crab Island in Hundred Acre Cove. This osprey nest is visible from the Wampanoag Trail on your way in to or out of Barrington. The osprey platform was originally placed in its current location in 1990 by Mr. Souter and has been reset four (4) times over the years due to ice and a microburst.

“The raising of the osprey platform was no small feat as it required this group of six to use two boats, over several days in March to: 1. Search Hundred Acre Cove for the platform; 2. Locate and retrieve the platform which was washed up on the mainland by the old icehouse at the Osamequin Nature Trail and Bird Sanctuary, 3. Transport the platform and footing back to Crab Island, 4. Reset the footing, 5. Return to Crab Island several days later to raise the platform and bolt it in place.”

Mr. Soutter said he is happy to help with the ongoing effort.