In a few weeks, they’ll be back. After spending winter vacation down in Central and South America, soon they’ll be preparing and organizing their seasonal homes. They’ll spend countless days collecting and searching for the best building material in hopes of making a comfortable home to mate, raise young and put food in throats.

The Pandion haliaetus, or Osprey, is one of western Montana’s most loved raptors. Found on every world continent except Antarctica, the single-species falcon is expected to travel northward in the coming weeks, to spend the mating season throughout the northwest.

Most commonly seen in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Wyoming, the sky-high hawk has become a staple in the Big Sky. Their livelihood however, is currently being threatened by a simple agricultural and ranching item n bailing twine.

Bailing twine, a favorite Osprey gathering material n either for it’s bright coloring or easy access, is killing the stoic falcons. In comes Project Osprey, a local grassroots organization that’s seeking to create awareness of the quiet threat to Montana’s greatest fish predator, bailing twine.

As most of western Montana is largely farming and agricultural land, the twine is found all over the state and is turning up in more and more Osprey nests. The problem: baling twine gets easily tangled in the Osprey’s sharp talons and often limits flight, food source and general mobility.

Project Osprey, the brainchild of two professors and a Missoula-based raptor research center, The Raptor View Research Center, began a few years ago and is currently researching the relationship between bailing twine and Osprey as well as what can be done.