Efforts underway to repair and replace ruined osprey nest platforms along Jersey Shore

Helping hands are stepping in to replace nests at the Jersey Shore that were wrecked by wind and ice during this past winter.

In some areas, pilings for docks were dislodged by ice. It appears the unusually cold winter took a toll on the osprey platforms as well.

Staff and volunteers with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey are scanning areas along coastal rivers and bays for any osprey platforms that were damaged or are gone.

“It’s really upsetting, because we want them to feel comfortable, and for them to come back,” Michele Guarducci, of Fair Haven, said.

Every day more of the previously endangered birds are returning to their breeding grounds at the Jersey Shore from their southern wintering sites.

Roughly three-quarters of New Jersey’s osprey population relies on man-made nest platforms that are constructed specifically for them.

“These structures really are crucial for ospreys to reproduce” Ben Wurst, of Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ, said. “Maintaining the current population is really key.”

These efforts follow a troubling trend in 2025 after an unprecedented number of osprey platform failures meant that many of the birds abandoned nests with eggs or chicks.

Experts pointed to an apparent shortage of Atlantic menhaden which is a key forage fish and critical food source for the ospreys.