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Osprey Like New Tukwila Nesting Platform

Osprey at the new nest platform City Light installed in Tukwila.

A new nesting platform Seattle City Light installed in Tukwila to encourage osprey to avoid high-voltage power lines won approval from the most important critics, the birds.

A pair of osprey that had been trying to build a nest on top of a utility pole carrying the power lines before the nesting platform was installed last month has completed a new nest on the platform.

The platform was installed just south of 112th Street and just east of Tukwila Boulevard. The previous nest could have put the birds in danger of electrocution and increased the risk of power outages. City Light helped with the installation of a similar nesting platform at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sandpoint facility in Seattle in May.

City Light also installed a nest deterrent device on the Tukwila utility pole to discourage any future nesting attempts by this pair of birds or others near the power lines. The utility started testing the nesting deterrent device in April with an installation on Harbor Island

Lineworkers install the nest deterrent device.

Nest deterrent device

Power lines where the osprey first tried to build a nest.