Boulder County officials installed a new protective “baffle” to ward off geese at the Boulder County Fairgrounds osprey nest, a measure ruffling feathers among some people who watch the nest webcam online.

Workers added a fake owl and several nails on Jan. 25 to deter geese from nesting in the osprey site.

A perch also was installed for the osprey, that are expected to return in early March to the nest at 9595 Nelson Road in Longmont.

County officials installed a webcam near the nest in 2012, and the site has garnered a devoted following who monitors the nest even in the offseason.

One commenter was worried about the nails on the nest, while another worried about a popular great blue heron that the commenters have named Fred.

“I really don’t like the nails, some birdy could land on one and get hurt,” wrote one commenter.

“Poor Fred won’t be able to hang out on the nest,” wrote another commenter.

Goose nesting season has come close to impacting the Fairgrounds nest, since it begins before the osprey nesting season, said Jasmine Finks, who monitors the comments on the osprey camera page.

“The last couple of years there’s been kind of a scare of the geese nesting in the nest,” Fink said.

“Any other bird of prey has got to scare a goose, and that’s what we’re all trying to deter is the goose nesting. … [The baffle is] doing its job. This is an osprey nest, and that’s what we want to see.”

In past years, geese have tried to use the nest, concerning officials that they could interfere with the arrival of the osprey.

“Over the past two years we’ve had geese try to use the nest,” said Nik Brockman, a web administrator for the Boulder County Parks and Open Space, “and we have observed other land management agencies that run similar types of cameras … that have installed some type of contraption like this.”

Officials dismissed concerns that the nails could injure birds that mistakenly landed on them.

“A wildlife biologist was there when we installed this baffle with the nails,” said Brockman, “and the nails are about the same gauge as any other standard bird spike system that we use in other places.”

As to the comments about “Fred,” while Finks said the inability to see Fred was unfortunate, she was not concerned about the impact of the baffle on other off-season birds in the area.

“It shouldn’t mess with any of them really because the other birds that nest below the nest … they don’t come back until a little later,” Fink said. In general, she said many of the critical comments were just “noise,” but that generally commenters were excited about the new perch.

Brockman added that if the wildlife biologist who oversaw the installation agreed with the commenters’ concerns, the baffle would be taken down. In a featured comment addressing concerns on the camera’s website, Finks wrote that the baffle was designed to be easily removable so it could be dismantled once the osprey arrived.

“We love that the chat community is interested and concerned about it, and it is something we will look into,” said Brockman. He and other people involved in the project plan to visit the nest again today to ensure there are no issues.