BENTON — When James Simonson saw an osprey nest being displaced Wednesday morning as workers removed a transmission line pole off Gogan Road next to the Sebasticook River, it irritated him.

“Pieces (of the nest) were falling everywhere. The birds were flying around,” Simonson said.

But Central Maine Power spokesman John Carroll said the nest had no eggs or chicks, so it wasn’t considered active. He said one that houses an adult can be legally removed to a nearby tree or pole.

“It’s nice that people care about the birds,” Carroll said. “We like them, too, just not on top of poles.”

The transmission pole in Benton was removed by MYR Group Inc. of Rolling Meadows, Ill., as part of CMP’s $1.55 billion project to modernize substations and transmission lines from Eliot to Orrington, Carroll said.

Osprey nests on top of transmission poles can present several problems, including causing grass fires and power outages when sticks get knocked loose, Carroll said. CMP has a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove as many as 20 osprey nests on poles annually.

A third-party inspector has been asked to go to the site to examine the grounded nest, which measures about 3 feet in diameter, Carroll said. He said it was his understanding that the adult birds in Benton had moved to another nest across the river, but Simonson and Sheridan Bailey said they recently and regularly saw two osprey in the nest.

If a nest does have viable eggs, Carroll said Avian Haven Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center in Freedom is contacted and the eggs are taken to a nursery.

“If an active nest is disturbed there is a concern that the (adult) birds will not come back,” Carroll said.

Ospreys, large fish-eating hawks of prey, generally mate for life. They nest near water and dive feet-first and catch live fish with their talons, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.

Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife biologist Charlie Todd said last spring that there were thousands of osprey in the state, including about 1,000 nesting pairs. He said about 10 percent of those perch atop utility poles.

Todd said it’s not difficult for osprey to build a new nest.

“Ospreys are pretty versatile and build very precarious nests because they always go to the top of a tree, channel market, chimney, power pole,” Todd said. “The ospreys are accustomed to rebuilding nests.”

Last June, Rebecca Loveland of Litchfield tried to halt the removal of osprey nests from utility poles. She said the birds were feeding babies in nests.

Loveland said at the time: “It seems like there should be an alternative and they should be willing to take a little of the $1.5 billion and build new boxes or save some nests.”

Carroll said CMP has topped trees and set up poles with platforms so the birds can relocate their nests.

Beth Staples — 861-9252

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