In the spring of 2022, an osprey pair returned and made a nest. We could not report on how many eggs were laid. However, we did eventually see 3 heads in the nest!
Enjoy our live wildlife cameras streaming in Kenue Park in Okoboji. The camera features the Okoboji Osprey family on its nest April-September and the rehabilitated trumpeter swans on the wetland October-March.
Camera quality may change in different seasons and weather conditions.
Okoboji Osprey
Like a number of Iowa species, including whitetail deer, turkey and Canada geese, osprey were extirpated --- extinct from a certain area --- from the state from the time the settlers arrived through the early 2000s.
With help from local conservationists, businesses, non-profits and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Dickinson County Conservation Board released juvenile ospreys from a specially-made hacking tower in Kenue Park for five years.
Osprey began returning to the nesting platform in the park in 2010.
The Dickinson County Conservation Board then set up a nest camera to view the osprey family from nest-making to egg-laying to fledging.
Trumpeter swans
The two trumpeter swans in Kenue Park are both rehabilitated. Each were injured and are no longer able to fly. Many trumpeter swans are injured by manmade structures or accidents involving humans, and rehabilitated birds were used for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources swan breeding program that helped to increase the state population of America's largest waterfowl.