Ospreys: The Birds of Summer

If you want an amazing view of wildlife from all over the world please visit Explore.org and make it a habit, especially if you do not live in an area with abundant views and if you have children. Watching bears stand on slippery rocks to catch salmon and mother bears teaching their babies how to make their way is a life-changing learning experience. There is a now empty osprey nest that is re-established every year by the same couple - unfortunately the chicks were taken by eagles early this summer, but that is a life-lesson too and one that is important to learn. Please support the foundation as it brings education to everyone with an internet connection.

If a New Yorker is lucky, on a good day you can see the Osprey;s while crossing the Verazanno Bridge, there is a nesting pair up top. Really cool if you get lucky.

Fishing on the shore of Frenchman Lake last Wednesday at sunset, I felt some frustration at the profusion of rings from fish rising and being unable to find a single fly that would inspire a similar ring. Just as the sun ducked behind the lava mounds, I saw something high up from the corner of my eye. An large osprey had come to a stop in mid-air, tucked its wings in, and made a graceful arc before plunging from about 100 feet up into water. And naturally, he winged away with a large trout. Ten minutes later, to make my failure as a fisherman sting a little more, a bald eagle skimmed the surface about 50 feet out from me and snatched an even bigger fish. I could hear his wings creak. I had a hamburger that night in stead of fish, but I felt nothing but joy at having witnessed something more beautiful than anything that can be created with CGI.

We have more than our share of ospreys, or fish hawks, on the Chesapeake. They are on just about every day marker. Also television antennas, whose sole purpose now is as osprey condo support structures.

Their young are certainly something only an osprey mother could love. The adults, on the other hand, are dramatically beautiful, and as well-adapted to what they do as sharks are to what THEY do. I feel a little sorry for the fish, but that's nature.

I hope the Ospreys don't depend on us. Our record on wild life has been dismal.

On the shore in Maryland, we watch for the return of Osrey as a mark of late spring. Similarly, winter is around the corner when they leave for the season. They dot the water and any high enough perch for their nest. As I get older, they have become a yearly metronome.

Glad to hear the Ospreys are back in sizable numbers in Connecticut. They are abundant on the Eastern shores of Maryland and Virginia as well. And the Bald Eagle is also making a mighty comeback in Maryland. Last summer, coming home from my daughter's soccer match in suburban Maryland between DC and Baltimore, we passed an adult eagle sitting warily on the ground while a juvenile (presumably its chick) fed on a deer (probably road kill) in a field. The birds are massive. Seeing them soaring overhead doesn't give you a sense of how large they are up close. We stopped just long enough to marvel at their beauty and then left to them to their feeding, glad to see our national bird is indeed repopulating its old haunts.

There are channel catfish and a number of koi in the pond next to me. Adjacent to the pond is a very tall cypress that had been struck by lightening years ago. Occasionally, an osprey will perch there and watch the fish in the pond. It's both exhilarating and sad when the bird suddenly snatches a fish. It's a spectacular bird but I feed the fish. Oh well. I wouldn't want a world without ospreys.

I like your comment about showing the Republicans how good government can work. We watch them each year near Truckee, Ca. and marvel at their ability to catch fish. Usually we can hear them but not see them since many of their nests are at high elevation but near Donner Lake. They also have some bald and golden eagles as neighbors and seem to get along fine. Perhaps the Republicans and Democrats can learn something from these magnificent birds.

For those of you who tend to write off the natural glories of the urban world, there are thrilling New Yorker ospreys who hang out majestically over the
Hudson, nesting both in the Palisades as well as the Bronx woods!

Watch this video of an osprey (in its nest) being untangled from some fishing line. It moved me to tears! Special mention to electric company PSEG for making it happen.

http://ospreyzone.com/osprey-rescue/?utm_source=OspreyZone+Update&ut...

Loved this! Thank you!

This past week there has been activity on Facebook regarding a number of osprey who have been injured by getting caught in fishing line and gear on Long Island left out by negligent fisherman. It was easy to see from the photographs that these birds would have died without intervention. The fishing line was completely wound around the birds' legs and they had to be taken to a veterinarian because the lines had cut into their legs. This is a terrible crime, leaving fishing line out to kill birds. Osprey may be one of my all time favorite birds, so it breaks my heart when I see photographs like this. Bless those who saved these birds this past week.

I thorougly enjoyed this article. The comment about the female screeching caused me to laugh aloud. It is nice to see some success in man's relationship with nature.

Thank you Richard Conniff. We enjoy them here on Nantucket too.

I loved the writing in this piece. I saw an osprey nest the other week on a hike in the Arapaho Recreational Area and was absolutely thrilled. I love seeing all wildlife, but spotting a bird of prey always puts an extra gleam on the encounter.

Right.
Lets not talk politics, after I've made my point about politics.
Got it.

Yes, thank you EPA for the 1972 ban. Let's also not forget what made it possible: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring published in 1962.

I have barely avoided many a -rear end- accident as I slow my car over the Bull Run bridge to watch a soaring bald eagle or swooping red tailed hawk. (This in metro DC/No.Virginia)

I love watching the Ospreys around my house here in Mattapoisett, MA. I love their strength and their pathetic little peep of a call! I expect something stronger, bigger more intense. That's okay... I'll take 'em any way I can see 'em. Do you watch osprey trax on FB??? Cool

Harry Mortner's anger is, no doubt, fueled by the accuracy of Conniff's "political" comments. How ironic: Conservatives who have no interest in conservation.

Conniff touched on the characteristic fluttering and spectacular behavior of Ospreys. I have often see Ospreys make several consecutive dramatic dives and fail to catch a fish. They sit momentarily on the water like a seagull, then struggle to become air born. They climb to perhaps 20 or 30 feet and suddenly stop flying but flutter, like a dog shaking water from his body. You can actually see the spray fly from the bird. Check it out the next time you watch a hunting Osprey.

"The summer is running away from us, and the fledglings are now out of the nest"..

Yes, and unfortunately scrapping for the GOP Presidential nomination!

On the bank of the Salmon River is a beach with a good view of a tall, straight, burned-out tree trunk across the river, atop which an osprey has an unobstructed view of the eddy below, where it dives for fish and then rises with it clenched in its powerful talons, wings with it up the valley then circles back and lands on top of the same tree snag, and with one powerful leg pinning down the still wriggling steelhead spends the next hour or so feasting.

This spring an osprey hung around our house on the Rock River here in WI. I was amazed that there was an osprey in our neighborhood. There are so many birds around now that I never saw in my entire childhood in the 60's and 70's.

As fish eaters, ospreys are great sources of information about water pollution. Scientists here at the University of Montana in Missoula have been monitoring the content of dangerous heavy metals left over from mining operations in the blood of osprey chicks along the Clark Fork River, one of the largest Superfund sites in the country.
In 2013, I was lucky enough to follow their work as I conducted research for my book, "The Call of the Osprey," which came out this summer. These folks maintained their sense of humor and joy in their work despite long hours of driving often over rutted dirt tracks from dawn to mid afternoon, when it got too hot for the chicks to be removed from their nests. Their devotion to these amazing creatures is helping us understand the legacy we suffer from the mindless exploitation of natural resources.
If you love ospreys, you can watch them on a number of webcams around the country, including two here in western Montana. Check out the Project Osprey Facebook page for more information.

Thanks for the poetry. Along with Ospreys, Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons have returned to my Chicago Illinois area skies. But the Black-Capped Chickadee is mostly gone from West Nile virus. While Blue Jays and American Crows slowly recover from the impact of the virus. Fewer Bobolinks, House Wren and Common Nighthawk.

Late spring this year, Lone Lake Park, Minnesota; osprey circles, plunges, comes up empty. On the second sortie, emerges with an enormous goldfish, a carp, invasive nuisance from some thoughtless homeowner's koi pond gone neglected. One in the plus column for the ecosystems of Lone Lake, this public treasure.

We have ospreys on the lake in Wisconsin. One year they chose to build their nest on a power pole. The power company had a solution. The next year they put up a nesting platform on an even taller pole near-by. Now the ospreys and every visitor on the lake enjoy the new nest. What a wonderful world it is when corporations and power companies do the right thing. Thank you Bayfield Electric.

The osprey is a truly beautiful bird. I remember well the first time I saw one, back in 1979 in East Hampton. I've enjoyed them ever since. But is it really necessary to call out seaside real estate owning Republicans as some species that might otherwise consume the osprey into extinction? Are Republicans the only ones who can afford seaside land? Are Democrats really the only people with a legitimate claim on environmentalism? Where are the editors of the New York Times and why are they allowing such drivel to appear in their newspaper? Is it really necessary to inject politics into every piece of prose that appears in a paper that prides itself in journalistic excellence? The Times really needs to ask itself whether it is indeed journalism or advocacy that it now practices. What a disgrace.

Very nice writing. And thank you for reminding us that our ability to appreciate the natural world is often tied to our political decisions.

I look out at the Connecticut river from my summer home in Guildhall VT, and frequently see our resident osprey and bald eagle. What a delight. However, I would not describe this river as clean. It is filled with toxics left over from the paper mills. Most days we have a major manure plume from field runoff. Nobody can seem to get a handle on this, as agriculture rules in this part of the country. So no, this river is not clean.

The Clean Water Act of 1972 was signed into law by President Nixon, Republican. Sadly, any Republican who would sign similar legislation today, is more endangered and harder to find than Ospreys were in 1972.

I was with this guy until he threw in politics.
He should visit the south shore of Long Island during the Summer. We are waist deep with Dems. Fortunately they recede in September.
As for government protection of the environment, it has been perfect.
Nearly all maritime species are now extinct. Forth years ago, Great South Bay was a great recreational facility. Now it is dead. The last specie to go was the horseshoe crab. It was cleaned out from the Fire Island Inlet and nearby waters in 2,014 by two "baymen" who picked 2,000.
Although we have federal, state and local patrols, they are patrolling a dead resource.

Question: how is the osprey nests anchored on these man-made platforms so as withstand strong winds?

Amend. Thanks for the article.

Beautiful piece. Here in Minnesota, we now have many ospreys too, where earlier in my life there were none. In that same timeframe, the eagles have gone from a rarity to commonplace and the trumpeter swans from almost none to 17,000. In the generally dire environmental prospects, it's good to have some successes to share with the next generation.

What a lovely story. The osprey tale is just another example that they (and millions of other animals) are the proverbial canary in a coal mine and are warning us that it's a matter of time before it's our turn to become extinct like the dodo.

A ten foot pole is not high enough for ospreys to feel comfortable, your standard length telephone/utility pole is best.
Ospreys, after making the plunge and getting a fish will, after they regain flight, shake themselves, in flight, just like a wet dog.
When gathering nesting materials they break/snatch dead branches off trees, in flight.