Blog # 271 Intruders: A Necessary Bane

Intruders or floater Ospreys are a necessary bane in a breeding Osprey’s existence, as  they act as vital replacements for missing mates and also take over recently abandoned  nests so they don’t go to waste. Intruding Ospreys are indicative of healthy, growing  populations such as ours around Cayuga Lake. They also have a way of spoiling a  peaceful morning’s revelry.  

Orpheus (on perch) is about to take over incubating from Ophelia.  

(Screenshot from Salt Point Osprey Nest Camera) 

Today started as a calm morning at Salt Point with a chill in the air forecasting the  coming snowfall. Ophelia had been incubating their three eggs as Orpheus sat guard on  the perch, preening while on the job. The sun was peeking out of the clouds and Salt 

Point was alive with cacophony of bird song and singers flying about. Suddenly peace  was broken by a dark imagine high above the nest and about a quarter of a mile north.  It was another Osprey. Instead of changing tack as it approached, it kept a direct course  headed toward the nest. 

The closer the intruding came; the more reactive Orpheus became. At first he and  Ophelia gave the prescribed alarm calls but the attack was eminent. With a quick flap of  his wings, Orpheus left the nest, bee-lining for the would-be invader. Just as the pair of  males were about to collide, the intruder quickly shifted his wings and dove away, out  over the lake. Orpheus quickly returned to Ophelia guarding the nest, and stayed with  her, still on high alert, for the nest half hour.  

Orpheus screams alarm calls at the intruder overhead. (Screenshot from Salt Point Osprey Nest Camera)

An intense intruder chase, courtesy of Coleman Sheehy Jr. 

Encounters with intruders are common place in the first half of the Osprey breeding  season although the frequency and intensity of these events are variable year to year  and colony to colony. Very little is known about intruders and their roles in the overall  

Intruder attacks Ophelia, courtesy of Cindy & Karel Sedlacek.

Osprey population. They are beneficial to the population, and are adults without  breeding partners and nests. At a minimum, intruders are annoyances: maximally, they  can interfere with reproduction as they did last year at Salt Point. Last summer’s attacks  were so frequent and violent that Orpheus and Ophelia changed nest sites and  ultimately failed to reproduce. 

Intruder rebuffed by Ophelia, courtesy of Cindy & Karel Sedlacek. 

Three pairs of Ospreys vied for possession of the unclaimed Stewart Park Bridge nest  box this spring with daily contests for the past few weeks. Once a pair claimed the nest,  intruders came to test their resolve to keep the nest! The young couple probably had a  day or two of peace before the invasions started. Intruders! Necessary thorns in the  side! 

Eyes to the sky! 

Candace 

Candace E. Cornell  

Friends of Salt Point  

Lansing, NY 

cec222@gmail.com

Read!  

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Ospreys of Salt Point 

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