Blog #251 Return of the Osprey: on their way home

I look forward to the Osprey coming home in the spring like most kids anticipate  Christmas. To me they are the true harbingers of spring. Knowing that the Salt Point  Ospreys will be returning home in only a few short weeks helps me get through these last bleak days of winter.  

The Osprey Cam needs the installation of a microphone and seasonal repair completed before Orpheus’ and Ophelia’s return to Salt Point. The question is, when will they arrive at Salt Point this year? The pair used to be regular like the swallows of  Capistrano, arriving on the same date, April 5, every year. In 2016, however, Orpheus arrived on April 1, and it has been getting earlier each year since. Last year, Orpheus surprised me by arriving on March 15th. What we do know is that they are on their way.  Below is a photograph of an Osprey spotted in south-east Baltimore County, MD,  yesterday. 

First Osprey of the season seen in southeast Baltimore County, MD, courtesy of Lou Üllen. 

Orpheus is not alone in showing up early. Birds world-wide are returning to their breeding grounds earlier than before, which is attributed to our changing climate. 

Researchers from Colorado State University, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the  University of Massachusetts examined 24 years of weather radar data, which also shows pictures of avian migration patterns across the North America. They documented what most people are seeing for themselves in nature; birds are now migrating earlier than 20 years ago, especially in areas warming the fastest. 

Timing is everything in nature. For thousands of years, birds have instinctively timed their spring migrations in North America to optimize food availability. But back on their wintering grounds, the birds have no way of knowing that the milder winters are leading to earlier ice melts, plant blossoming, and premature insect hatchings. The birds don’t know that the changing climate requires them to migrate earlier, and it is forcing birds to figure it out the hard way. Birds arriving on their breeding grounds too early, before food is readily available, could starve. Those birds arriving too late miss finding prime nesting sites and mates. There is an adage in evolutionary biology: when the climate is warming, evolution favors the early-arrivers; when the climate is cooling, evolution favors the late-comers. Species typically react to change by slowly adapting to it over multiple generations, but slow won’t cut it these days. The changing climate dictates that species react to change swiftly or perish, and only some species can tow that heavy bar. 

Our area Ospreys are adapting by arriving back at their nests earlier than in years past.  As is customary with Ospreys, the eldest breeding birds arrive first in the area to claim  their traditional nests with male usually preceding the females. Unmated and younger  birds follow in a week or so later, after the first wave of Ospreys have settled. 

Unfortunately, many migrating passerines or songbirds are not as quick and cannot  keep step with the rapidly changing climate. This fact on top of the 2019 headline grabbing Cornell Lab of Ornithology study documenting the disappearance of nearly 3 billion birds from North America over the last 50 years is startling. The adaptable  Osprey fortunately is increasing in number, but obviously many of their passerine  cousins are not as flexible. 

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Before I close, above is a screenshot of Ophelia and Orpheus in their Salt Point nest on  August 13, 2019, take from the Salt Point Osprey Camera. If all went well this winter for  these magnificent birds, we will see them in a few short weeks. 

Eyes to the sky! 

Candace 

Candace E. Cornell  

Friends of Salt Point  

Lansing, NY 

cec22@cornell.edu 

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