A CT woman wants us to know the deadly impact discarded trash has on wildlife. She sees it.

Nancy Ellen Harrigan James wants the public think about the flocks of birds that nest by the water.

She’s been an Osprey nest monitor with the Connecticut Audubon’s Osprey Nation partnership over the last eight years and she is pleading with the public to keep the state’s beaches and waters clean for the sake of the health of the wildlife. She wants to see more responsible recreation statewide.

And she knows, as we get closer to Memorial Day, more people will be flocking to the beach.

James, an Oakdale resident, herself spends hours almost every day monitoring five nests and along the way walks the grounds at Harkness State Park and Seaside State Park in Waterford in her travels. She comes across dangerous litter and has personally seen the impact of that litter on the ospreys and other wildlife.

She also is constantly picking up kites and kite string, balloons, dog waste bags and fishing line, in addition to food and plastic trash.

James said careless littering has had tragic consequences. For example, she said, she has witnessed multiple birds die because of fishing wire.

“Disregard for wildlife is at an all-time high,” James said. “It’s either you care, or you don’t.”

A less tragic example occurred when an adult male osprey at Harkness became tangled in a kite, she said. The bird was spotted by a photographer and was later untangled by park staff and safely released.

“I now have a personal mission to daily clean up fishing line, balloons and kites as well as raising awareness through flyers and public outreach,” James said. “I now have engaged others in my fight from fellow osprey monitors to responsible dog walkers who keep their dogs on leashes in public places.”

“I am constantly finding fishing line on the ground when fishing line receptacles are just feet away,” she said. “A huge amount of line also washes ashore tangled in seaweed, which then unsuspecting ospreys, eagles and other birds bring to a nest as nesting material. In 2021, at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford I lost two 7-week-old ospreys at their nest due to line, tackle and plastic bait netting that the parents brought to the nest. A tragic preventable incident.”

“Fall in love with the birds”

Tom Andersen is director of communications at the Connecticut Audubon Society, which is headquartered in Fairfield and has 22 sanctuaries and seven around the state, said the anglers at the sanctuaries have been responsible in disposing their fishing line.

“We’ve had a few incidents with birds ending up in the fishing line but not too many,” Anderson said. “I didn’t hear of any last year at our sanctuaries.”

But protecting ospreys is taken very seriously by the organization and its volunteers.

“We started Osprey Nation in 2014, “Anderson said. “Ospreys were driven close to extinction since World War II because of the use of DDT. After that was banned by the EPA the bird population has grown.”

“Ten years ago, so many osprey nests were popping up we wanted to keep track of their population in case the numbers started dropping again. That would be a signal that something was going on or something needed to be looked into. At the very least it would be a warning system.”

Anderson said the osprey numbers have been tremendous and credits the volunteers for being so dedicated to the cause.

“People sign up and don’t know what to expect,” Anderson said. “We tell them about 20 minutes a day twice a month and a lot of people do. Some do 30 minutes or more and others fall in love with the birds and keep going back.”

James formally became a nest monitor in 2015.

“I was at Seaside Park in Waterford, and I was looking at an osprey nest and a man asked if I wanted to take over his job as the nest monitor. The minimum of monitoring is twice a month for 15 minutes.”

James devotes three hours a day to the work. In all, she monitors five nests in Waterford and New London. One of her nests is in New London and four are in Waterford.

It is in her daily strolls up and down the state parks that she sees dog waste bags hanging in bushes, in chain-link fences or even on the community barbeque grills. She also picks up litter in the sand and balloons tangled in the trees.

“Nature and birds have always been a passion for me,” James said. “It started when I was a child. My mom took me outside as soon as I could go outside. My first word was boo jake for blue jay. The course was set in motion when I was 3 years old. Seeds that are sowed when you are a child have a major impact.”

James, 63, grew up in Waterford. She fills out a volunteer sheet to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for log times, mileage and supplies. She provides more specific information to the Osprey Nation group, such as photos, how long she was observing, what kind of activity was going on, as well as general behavior, nesting information and potential territorial disputes. Ospreys could have 1 to 3 chicks a year.

“Most people don’t have the privilege to see the young in the nest,” James said. “You have to wait a couple of weeks until their heads are visible. We give a lot of details to Audubon and they give a report to the DEEP. I’ve never been so passionate about anything else in my life than I have about this program. I’m in awe of these birds.”

‘Burning in my soul’

James said that despited to joy found in nature, “not everything has a happy ending.

“Losses are felt hard by all of us. The more time we spend together the more we get bonded. We are only asked for 15 minutes twice a month but many of us feel we have to do it on a daily basis,” she said. “We all have the same fever for the health of these birds.”

“I cry at times because I’m so overwhelmed in how callous the public is getting,” James said.

James said the litter is only going to ramp up as the weather gets better. She has made it a mission of hers to have fishing line disposal bins for fishing wire. James has helped seven go into different state parks and boat launches. The cost for a bin is about $30.

“I lost two chicks at seven weeks due to a wire and was working hard to pick everything up and educating others and tragedy still struck,” James said.

“I almost quit the program. I was encouraged by other stewards to stay on. I tapped into my retirement and put out enough money for billboards. One of the pictures was birds with fishing line hanging out of its mouth. I did 30 days in English and 30 days with the billboard in Spanish. I had them there for 60 days each. It cost me $6,000 and I’m in no position to pay that money. But I needed something good to come out of the tragedy. I thought a billboard will be better than 8 by 11 flyers.”

James said she’s not afraid to approach people who aren’t being respectful of the environment.

“I spoke with a man who had been fishing over 40 years and he said he never gave it a second thought about letting his line go,” James said. “I said to him that his line just doesn’t vanish. It goes somewhere. I told him about the potentially happen to birds and turtles, he was receptive to that.”

“I wanted to drive home the impact of their habits and many people would day they couldn’t get that photo out of their heads. I still barely go one day without picking up lines or lures,” she said.

James said there are 375 osprey stewards throughout the state monitoring more than 1,000 osprey around the state. She said the number of people monitoring nests is growing.

“It’s burning in my soul and I’m happy to say others have the fire ignited in them too. Enjoying the shoreline and state parks is a privilege,” James said. “People need to have respect for their outdoor recreation and be responsible. I’m talking to a lot of stewards and people stepping up. We are gaining momentum, but this is a worldwide problem and not just to where I go every day.”