CEDAR FALLS - To the passing motorists on Iowa Highway 58 near Cedar Falls on Wednesday, Ed Gruenwald probably looked out of place.

After all, the Hartman Reserve Nature Center director was standing near the four-lane highway and staring up at an iWireless cellular tower. Nothing about the scene really evoked a feeling of conservation - at least from afar.

Suddenly, he's pointing up at the sky, where a young osprey has emerged from nearby George Wyth State Park. The bird, its six-foot wingspan easy to spot, carries a stick in its talons. After a few circles, the osprey lands on top of the cell tower and deposits the stick in a large nest, where a mate is resting.

It's an exciting sight to behold, partly because osprey are rare in Iowa, and partly because the male bird has a tag on his foot with the marking "H-8" - signifying he was released from Hartman Reserve just two years ago. They were discovered at the nest last week by an avid bird watcher, who notified the reserve.

But Gruenwald's obviously a little disappointed at the location the osprey picked out.

"We made a bunch of platforms," he said, referring to the reserve's hacking towers near the Cedar River, "and what do they pick? The cell towers."

The towers are ideal, he said, because they're so tall - around 120 feet - and because they provide the kind of flat, wide surface osprey look for when choosing a nesting site.

And, thankfully, the cell phone company hasn't caused a fuss. Gruenwald said that's likely because these are the first pair to come within 60 miles of the metro area. In Florida, where osprey are more predominant, around 40 percent of cell phone towers become the birds' summer homes.

Osprey are birds of prey which feed entirely on fish. They migrate to Central and South America for the winter, returning in April or May.

Location aside, having the pair nest here again means the reserve's osprey release program is truly working. Begun in 1998 under the auspices of longtime director Vern Fish, Hartman Reserve started releasing four to five young osprey per year through the Cedar Valley Osprey Project, funding and staffing it entirely through local businesses and individual volunteers. The last year for the project was 2005, which is when "H-8" was released.

"We decided to go so long, then just wait and see whether they'd come back," said Gruenwald, who has been director for seven months.

Osprey made the endangered species list in the 1960s, but after the U.S. banned the pesticide DDT, have been making a gradual comeback. They will usually hatch two to three chicks, of which one or two will reach adulthood.

Mating pairs have been spotted for years in various sites around the state, especially near the Mississippi River.

The osprey probably aren't in danger of electrocution from the cell tower. Nevertheless, Gruenwald hopes to build a taller platform adjacent to the tower to encourage the birds to nest away from potential human activity.

"Usually, people are the problem - but not in this case," Gruenwald said.

Contact Amie Steffen at (319) 291-1405 or amie.steffen@wcfcourier.com.