Through encircling foliage, an osprey nest is visible in the canopy of Googins Island in Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park. One large feathered head bobs up and down while two smaller heads ape the motion, feasting with their mother on fish that their father caught.

While this is an ordinary sight for the state park’s rangers and volunteers, it is less common for the visitors that chance upon the weekly guided osprey tour at Wolfe’s Neck park, where participants can learn about and view the birds of prey.

“Osprey can lay up to three eggs every year and they lay them about a week apart,” said Stephanie Goggin, an environmental steward with Maine Conservation Corp. “They hatch about a week apart as well and once they hatch, they eat about a pound of fish a day, doubling in size every week for the next five weeks.” Food is provided by the father, who catches fish for the whole family until the juveniles learn to fly at between seven and eight weeks old, she said.

Osprey, which mate for life, grow to weigh about two and a half pounds, said Goggin, and have a wingspan between four and six feet.

In the fall, the osprey migrate to South America.

“Mom and dad go first and leave the babies, who follow a little later and then stay down there for two to three years before they come back,” said Goggin, though the adults migrate north annually, usually returning to the same nest year after year.

At this nesting site, the park guide sets up a telescope for visitors to get a closer view of the osprey. Through the scope, a manmade platform is visible approximately 50 feet above the ground that stabilizes the nest.

A severe thunderstorm on July 5 of last year “took down the nest, and the babies were only five weeks old,” said park manager Andy Hutchinson.

“All the babies went down with the nest,” he said. “We discovered it the next day and we were worried that there may not have been any survivors from the 50 foot fall.”

Park ranger Michael Frey and Hutchinson found a juvenile male at the base of the nesting tree, and called Avian Haven, a wild bird rehabilitation center based in Freedom, for advice on how to rescue the bird. Eventually two juvenile females that had fallen from the nest were found near the shore.

A platform was built that night and secured on the nesting treetop by a local arborist the following day. The three juveniles were returned to the platform, which was wired to the tree.

“Mom and dad were still freaked out and they didn’t want to land on the nest for a couple of hours,” said Hutchinson.

“Once dad brought a fish back, mom rushed to the nest and started feeding the little ones,” said Frey. “They’re pretty opportunistic eaters — stripers, haddock, flounder, mackerel — they’ll eat whatever is in season at the time and is small enough for them to catch.”

Once listed as a threatened species, Frey said osprey are now listed as “animals of least concern” since the population rebounded when DDT was banned in 1968.

“Some people come regularly to see them through the season,” said Hutchinson. “Or it might be a kid who is seeing them for the first time.

“I’ve seen a couple of kids jump back from the scope because they’re surprised at how close we can focus on them,” he added.

The Osprey lookout point is easily accessible to park visitors, and is located approximately 0.2 miles from the parking lot along the White Pines Trail. The next osprey tours will take place from 2-3 p.m. Sunday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 29.

Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park is located at 426 Wolfe’s Neck Road in Freeport. For more information call 865- 4465.

rgargiulo@timesrecord.com