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One in Four Connecticut Osprey Nests with Up-to-Date Reports Had Failed by 1 August

Two juvenile ospreys sitting together in a nest
Conservation · Population & status

By 1 August 2026, 171 of 691 Connecticut, USA osprey (Pandion haliaetus) nests with up-to-date monitoring reports had failed — roughly one in four. At the same point in 2025, 113 of 706 nests had failed, about one in six. Connecticut Audubon Society released the comparison on 7 August and stressed that the 2026 season was not yet complete.

More than 400 volunteers take part in the statewide Osprey Nation programme, submitting weekly observations from about 1,000 known nests. The August figures therefore describe the nests with current reports at that date, not a final statewide total.

Only five chicks had fledged at Great Island

Great Island in Old Lyme showed one of the sharpest local changes. The site fledged 37 osprey chicks in 2024 and 27 in 2025. By the 7 August report, only five chicks had fledged there in 2026.

The new warning followed Connecticut’s weakest breeding result in the 12-year Osprey Nation programme. In 2025, 682 active nests produced an estimated 862 fledglings, or 1.26 per active nest. Connecticut Audubon has since begun work to identify the fish delivered to nests in salt, brackish and fresh water.

Menhaden remained a concern, not a proven cause

Connecticut Audubon is concerned that reduced availability of Atlantic menhaden may be contributing to poor breeding results, especially around the mouth of the Connecticut River. The organisation also acknowledges that weather, disturbance, predation and other factors can cause nest failure. The provisional 2026 monitoring therefore shows a rise in failed nests, but it does not by itself establish why they failed.

The organisation used the new figures while urging the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to reduce the Chesapeake Bay cap on the industrial reduction fishery for menhaden. The commission approved Draft Addendum II for public comment, with options that included reducing the Bay Cap by up to 50%. No new reduction was adopted at that meeting; the board was due to consider final action in November 2026.

Sources and image credit

  1. Connecticut Audubon Society. (2026, August 7). Connecticut Audubon urges Fisheries Commission to limit menhaden harvest as osprey nest failures rise.Primary conservation statement reporting provisional 2026 monitoring. By 1 August, 171 of 691 nests with up-to-date reports had failed, compared with 113 of 706 by the same date in 2025; only five chicks had fledged at Great Island by the report date. Connecticut Audubon explicitly described the 2026 data as incomplete and acknowledged that several factors can contribute to poor breeding outcomes.
  2. Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. (2026, August). ASMFC Atlantic Menhaden Board approves Draft Addendum II for public comment.Primary fisheries-management announcement. Draft Addendum II was released for public comment and included options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery Cap by up to 50%; no new catch reduction was adopted at that meeting.

Image: Andy Morffew — two five-week-old osprey chicks (Pandion haliaetus) in a nest at Tigertail Beach, Marco Island, Florida, USA, 1 April 2016; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Representative image of a successful nest; not one of the Connecticut nests monitored in 2026. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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