Gus Ben David and crew’s osprey poles are now the proud surfaces on which 83 osprey pairs are nesting.

Rob Bierregaard was introduced to the Vineyard’s osprey population by Gus Ben David and has been studying the Vineyard’s ospreys since the 1960s.

Three baby osprey chicks are being hand raised by Gus Ben David in Edgartown following an accident aloft over Chappaquiddick last Thursday. The birds, which are about two weeks old, fell from their nest when the electrical pole that held them and their nest caught fire. Suddenly homeless, the three little birds were rescued by NStar crews and turned over to Mr. Ben David, a noted naturalist and owner of the World of Reptiles and Bird Park off the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.