The first Ospreys of the season have come back to the nest on the old WW II crane.
Our ospreys haven’t yet started to refurbish their nest here by our village on the Russian River. Most of our river Ospreys spend their winters in South America, but there are always a few pairs fishing the coast year round. We haven’t heard their distinctive sky-meow whistle, yet. Probably because the river’s still too muddy for fishin. Soon. Soon!
The SF Bay pair on the crane star in their own spy camera — Live cam link: http://sfbayospreys.org/
Link to full East Bay Times article — http://sfbayospreys.org/
osprey facts:
They are MAGNIFICENT! Huge wings, deep amber eyes, they make a huge clever stick nest that they use year after year.. and some of the chicks are Very Vocal: fishie fishie i wanta fishie gimme fishie now fishie now which has been observed to drive the parents to distraction.
Osprey: Family--Hawks and Vultures; Genus--Pandion Haliaetus. They are a large raptor that is the only North American hawk that feeds almost exclusively on fish. They have spiked scales on their feet, two of their toes can rotate out to form a symmetrical grasp on their squirming prey.
Wing span: 59 to 70 inches.
Adult weight: 50 to 71 ounces.
Fishing skills: Ospreys catch fish on one of every four dives, making a catch about once every 12 minutes of fishing.
Frequent flier: An osprey may log 160,000 air miles in migrations over its lifetime of 15 to 20 years.
Nests: Contains two to three eggs on average. Stick nests can be 10- to 13-feet deep and three- to six-feet in diameter — easily big enough for a human to sit in. They use the same nests for years.
Risks: Ospreys build their nests with sticks and other scooped-up materials, including fishing line. Unfortunately, the line can wrap around and injure the chicks. Since organochlorine pesticides —especially DDT — were banned in 1972, Ospreys and many other birds have made a come back.
[additional notes from 52 Bird Tales, by Leah Norwood and Linda Fisher, 2016]