(Photo by Caroline Rusk) As part of a statewide attempt to reestablish osprey in Iowa, four young birds arrived at the Dickinson County Nature Center Monday night.

The Dickinson County Nature Center welcomed four new additions Monday night with a small ceremony celebrating their arrival.

The baby osprey - falcon-like birds of prey - were purchased through a community fund drive to bring the species back to the Iowa Great Lakes.

"The community has been really supportive of the osprey program again this year," said Dickinson County Naturalist Charles Vigdal.

This is the second year for the program in Dickinson County. In 2007, five baby osprey were delivered to the nature center's new hacking station. The birds themselves can have a wingspan of five feet and dive into the water to catch fish, often completely submerging themselves in the process. Barbed pads on the soles of their feet help it grip their slippery prey. When the birds take a large fish to the nest, they carry it headfirst to make it as aerodynamic as possible.

Osprey numbers drastically declined from pesticide poisoning and eggshell thinning in the 1950-1970s. Following the ban on the chemical DDT, populations increased rapidly.

Osprey programs receive birds at approximately 43 days of age, when they are old enough to eat small bites of fish by themselves but young enough to not leave the nest.

The birds currently reside in the hacking station built last summer from donated materials by volunteers located next to the wetlands on the Dickinson County Nature Center grounds. A monitor feeds live footage of the birds to a television located in Dee and Kate's Butterfly House behind the nature center, where the public can view the birds from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Monday - Thursday.

Those wishing to view the osprey on the monitor should visit the butterfly house within the next week to ensure they are still in the nesting area.

"At 53 days old, they start to fly and will leave the hacking station," said Tim Waltz of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, who has helped with the local osprey program since the beginning. "At that point we'll feed them on top of the roof."

As 99 percent of the osprey's diet comes from fresh fish, the birds are often associated with clean water areas. The four young osprey at the Nature Center eat a pound of fresh fish per day, so Vigdal and Naturalist Barbara Tagami are asking for an unusual type of donation - live or fresh fish.

"We're accepting donations of filleted, boneless fish," Vigdal explained. "They can be dropped off during open hours at the butterfly house behind the nature center."

The osprey were collected by and purchased from Allete Energy, a division of Minnesota Power, and came from the Brainerd, Minn. area. At approximately $520 per bird, donations from the community are essential to continue the program year after year.

Major donors for the 2008 Dickinson County Osprey Program include the Bedell World Citizenship Fund, Jon and Betsy Tonsfeldt, the Bobby Cornell Memorial Fund, Mediacom, Tom Gronstal and the Iowa Great Lakes Rotary Club.

"We'd also like to thank Tim (Waltz) with the Iowa DNR for traveling to collect the birds," Vigdal said, "as well as Pat Schlagerbaum, who heads the osprey program for the DNR."

The osprey will migrate in late August, spend up to 20 months in Central and South America and may return to the Iowa Great Lakes in 2010. The naturalists are hopeful that last year's birds will return next spring.