34 man-made nesting grounds will provide safety to the Ospreys in future. The Osprey is a specially protected bird. People may know it for two aspects – it is one of most graceful big vulture bird, but in same time a regular visitor of the fish ponds. To promote protection of this specie from imprudent human actions as well as from strong winds, during 2007 the team of the project “Osprey”, run by the Latvian Fund for Nature has built 34 man-made nesting grounds. Fish pond owners can apply to compensations for amount of fish, eaten by the Ospreys. Research and protection will go on also in this year. Occurance of the Osprey in Latvia. At the end of the 19th century Osprey in Latvia was considered as the ordinary nesting specie, though couple decades later their quantity rapidly decreased. 35 years ago number of the Ospreys in Latvia was counted about 10–15 couples. Focused searching and counting of the nests started about 1980ies when researchers collected information for the Latvian Red Book and for the Atlas of the Nesting Birds of Latvia. Then the known nests were controlled systematically along with searching of the new nesting grounds. In the period of 1987–1990 according to the information provided by Mâris Kreilis there were known at least 63 nesting territories of the Osprey. During the preparing of the second Atlas of the Nesting Birds of Latvia 2000– 2004 information about 90 nests was gathered. To know more about the Osprey and its protection in Latvia, write to leader of the project Aigars Kalvâns.   
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