Adding sticks to their nest must be some kind of addiction because the nest is already full and doesn't really need any more. It surprises me when I see them bringing in more sticks even when they have chicks in the nest. Many sticks can be very unwieldy and I have seen one mate flee the nest when the other came in to drop one. An inspection of the ground underneath the nest will reveal sticks scattered randomly over a broad area where they accidentally dropped them trying to land on the nest box.
By contrast, there is an osprey nest built at the top of a large aluminum "telephone pole" holding up a major highway sign on Rte. 4 connecting the county and Washington. They had to build a surprisingly small nest because the top of the pole is not that large and there are no edges to hold the sticks in place. We passed by there this morning and I saw two little heads sticking up.
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