Officials at Lake Monroe say there’s a silver lining to this year’s flooding: for the first time, nesting ospreys near the lake produced a fledgling chick.
Reservoir Wildlife Specialist Rex Watters says the high water level kept people away from the nesting structure on a peninsula by Fairfax Beach this year. He says in past years, human activity there disturbed the hawks and prevented them from raising their young.
“This year, because of the high floodwaters, they were protected from that kind of foot traffic, and that allowed them to go ahead and complete the raising of their young to fledge stage," he says.
Watters says for the most part, the flooding didn’t affect visitor numbers at the lake this summer. Despite the water being 15 feet higher than normal for much of the main boating and fishing season, he says he saw a large amount of activity on the lake.
Watters says the ospreys are still in the area, and the baby bird will fly the nest sometime between September and October.
