Ospreys’ arrival heralds good news for the Back Bay

There are five more reasons for getting out to the Back Bay and five more for being thankful that the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve is a safe harbor for wildlife ? both local and migratory.

A pair of ospreys ? federally protected birds of prey ? hatched three chicks earlier this month on a platform on Shellmaker Island built especially for this type of bird. Officials believe it is the first time the birds have ever nested in Orange County.

Environmentalists ? not surprisingly ? are ecstatic about the news.

City officials are even pleased, despite the fact that the birds’ presence is holding up construction of the $6-million Back Bay Science Center.

At any rate, the birds are putting on quite as show as they raise their young. The chicks should be flying away on their own in a month to six weeks.

What is encouraging about the birds’ arrival, and extended stay, is that it suggests that the Back Bay is getting cleaner.

“We think within the [Newport Bay] watershed the pollution’s starting to work its way out of the system,” Brian Shelton, a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game, told the Daily Pilot. “Something’s working right for them to want to be here.”

What is working is the dedicated, concerted effort of environmentalists and city and county leaders to make sure that the Back Bay is as clean as it can be. The addition of wetland filters and other pollution fighters has been a lengthy but successful process.

Those efforts are being helped by all of us who go out of our way to make sure we aren’t adding to the Back Bay’s past problems through simple means such as not dumping trash into storm drains or more organized efforts such as cleanup days.

The ospreys’ births are the type of events that make the work well worth it.